Iris
by Sergeant Salt's Shaker Beat
Summary: She wasn't quite an outcast but not quite a loser either. He, on the other hand, was bubbly and energetic, everything she wanted to be. He was also the first person to talk to her in middle school. She just had to feel something for him, right? EijixOc
1. Prologue

Iris

Epilogue

I don't wanna sound ungrateful to my parents or sound emo or anything, but my life kinda sucked during my many, many years at Seishun Academy, Seigaku for short. Not to brag or anything but I was really popular as the new American student and every guy just totally wanted to date me 'cause I was just so hot and it was just such a hassle!

Just kidding. The 'popular' look just wasn't me. I was too quiet to pull that off. I wasn't the most unpopular person in school or the most popular either. Just _there_.

I suppose you could say I was that wet dog in a box on the corner that no one wanted to pick up and ignored. Yup. Life wasn't that great for me.

The one thing that made me smile everyday though was my loving boyfriend, Justin Timberlake. Again, kidding. I was all alone, but then again, so was just about everyone in Junior high. Besides, I don't smile everyday. Even the one person that I can count on as my friend, high school ultra goth Yamashita Ren, was never around because (as I mentioned) she was in a high school and I was in junior high.

That didn't mean I never heard from her though. She was the type of goth whose stunts came all the way back to high school rumors.

Anywho, my personal adventure didn't begin until my first year of middle school when I met _him_ so I'll start there and get to the main event later...

_~I~R~I~S~_

As I walked to my class among the crowds I found myself being bumped and shoved so many times that I got dizzy. As per usual, no one seemed to see me so I pretended not to see them. I was pissed but I wouldn't shout and lose my temper or anything. It wasn't worth it. Being an ant in a swarm wasn't so bad. It was just kinda lonely with everyone ignoring me. My only friend was in her third year after all, and probably had no time for me with all of her mischievous antics. As soon as it took to get hit by a train, I was suddenly on the cement floor of Seigaku, my books scattered here and there along with my homework. Thank god the papers were stapled together depending on the assignments...but still...

What the heck happened?

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" I looked and saw a bowing red head in front of me. I couldn't quite see his face until he looked up...yes, he was quite cute with his childish face and indigo blue eyes. There was a white plaster band-aid over his nose too. He started gathering up my papers at high speed, shoving them at me and then storming off towards the school. "I'm sorry! I'm late!"

He hadn't been late...I definitely would've known...in fact...With a glance at my brown leather wrist watch I found that it was about ten minutes until we had to be in class. That red haired kid was off. Still, the fact that he was the first person to talk to me at this school in the month I've been here made me happy. He didn't ignore me and even helped me too. I was so happy that I hurried up to class with a smile on my face, and I swore I was skipping even though I was walking.

I saw him in a couple of my classes that day too. He seemed nice and pretty upbeat but we didn't really talk much if it didn't involve a short project or something we had to do. The saddest thing was that I knew his name, Kikumaru Eiji, but he didn't seem to know my name, Saitou Katsumi. It went on like that for another two years, in fact, with him probably not knowing my name. It sucked, a lot, since I harbored a huge crush on him.


	2. A fortunate change?

Iris

Salty- Thank you Coco96! You made me review faster! Reviews are my food and water and water! (Oh no, I just said water again...)

Thank you to Aznprincessali also! I'm glad you liked it!

1. A fortunate change?

Starting the first day of my third year I was an upperclassmen but, apart from a couple of new students and the classroom/floor change, there wasn't much of a difference. Except that when I got bumped some people said 'Sorry, Sempai!' which was awesome. Ooh, and I got taller. Still, not a lot happened, except that I got my braces removed. That was awesome too. I could eat and drink stuff that I couldn't before. Anyway, I keep contradicting myself.

Still, this year was special. I just didn't know it exactly until I walked into the front doors for the seating arrangement. We had to do random draws and there was a _huge_ line of students for it. But eventually, I got my number for my desk. I just had no idea what to do with it.

"Okay class," said some orange haired lady that I supposed was our teacher. "This may be a bit confusing since we decided to switch the seating arrangement up this year! Everyone has been assigned a number, correct?" A chorus of yeses followed. "Okay then, on the desks you will find a number that matches your own. You will be sitting there for the following year of homeroom."

There were some oohs, but some of disappointment. Last year we had been able to choose our own seats so most people had sat next to their friends. I, of course, had to sit in the back with the other unaccepted students, U.S. for short. The sitting arrangement plan this year made it definite that I would sit by people though, so maybe I could make some friends that aren't as quiet as me and/or don't talk.

After some wandering around I found that my desk was behind some brunette who had found his desk earlier than anyone else and right next to the window! How awesome was that? Perhaps my third year was going a bit well after all.

And then it got better. I didn't think it could but it did. The person that I had a crush on in first year and got over a bit in second year sat next to him. At first I thought it was a good thing, god sent, but I couldn't quite decided a moment later. My chest wasn't fluttering like a bird like normally. Maybe I had finally gotten over him!

"Ah," he turned around. "Hi neighbor!" he waved at me. Damn, my heart beat got quicker.

"Hi, I'm Saitou Katsumi," I said quietly. He grinned at me and the brunette turned around too. He was a closed eyed boy with his hair cut pretty stylishly in a feminine fashion. I'm pretty sure he hadn't been in my classes before but ohohoh, could I name him. He was Fuji. Fuji Syusuke, one of the most popular boys in the school. I could see why too, he was pretty cute. I blushed at my own thought and then realized that I was stuck in my head. "N-nice to meet you!" I bowed. Big mistake.

Wanna know why? I was still sitting in my desk and bowed a _little _too low. Three guesses what happened. Here's what you should guess.

A- Katsumi was abducted by aliens.

B- Katsumi and Kikumaru Eiji fell in love and lived happily ever after.

C- Katsumi banged her head like an idiot.

Which one fits me better?

"Ow..." You guessed it, it was choice B. Just joshing you. It was really C.

Simultaneously, I glanced at them and sunk back into my desk, my new haven. Why was I such an awkward stupid person? Great, I had a headache.

"You okay, Saitou-Chan?" Kikumaru-kun asked, looking worried. Was he...concerned about me? Well...there was a really loud bang so anyone would be concerned. Even Fuji-kun was frowning, so I supposed it must have looked serious or something. My head started to pulse a bit, but I had been hurt worse than that.

"I'm fine, honestly," I grinned but felt like dropping my head on the desk once more. It was nice and cool, like an ice pack. But I really was fine. Didn't need to go to the nurse and make anyone work for nothing. It probably wasn't even scratched. Maybe internally bleeding. Oh no, what if it had caused some sort of brain damage? I laughed...not because I was nervous though. A lot of times I had funny thoughts...or at least I thought that the thoughts that I thought were funny. Hehe...that sounded funny also.

"Saisai-chan~? What's wrong?" I looked up. Dang it, I've gotta stop getting trapped in my own mind. It probably looks like I'm a zombie or something...(1)

"I'm fine, really." He smiled, seeming satisfied and turned back to talk with Fuji, who did the same. The desk next to me was now filled. So was the one behind me. Actually, the whole class as an entity were in their seats...that sounded weird too.

Then, like a huge bomb went off with no one noticing it was there, I realized what had just occurred. My reputation of nothing might have been destroyed-to Kikumaru-kun-and I was probably that clumsy girl that hits her head and sits behind him. That's terrible!

I sighed and saw the orange haired lady step up to the middle of the classroom. Now looking at it, I wish she chose another set of clothes. She was at least in her late thirties to late forties but she was wearing skinny jeans and a really, really low cut v-neck shirt. Unfortunately, the white material of the shirt made her black undergarments very...viewable. Why the heck was she dressed like she was trying to sedu-I didn't want to think the word-make some person like her for scandalous reasons?

"Hello, children," she flipped her wavy hair over her shoulder, making her black undergarments now completely visible. I hoped that she didn't do this on purpose. "My name's Furutani Aimi. You kids can call me Aimi, if you wish," she winked. I was gonna call her Ms. Furutani; she scared me for some unexplainable reason. "Any who, I'll be your homeroom teacher for the next year, my little kittens," she winked again.  
What the heck was up with this teacher? Was she, like, trying to flirt or something? She was really confusing me.

"That is, unless my stupid boyfriend pops the question anytime soon." Ms. Furutani closed her eyes and sighed, seeming pretty annoyed. Perhaps she was trying to make her boyfriend jealous...? I had no clue, not being good at reading people and all. "Anyway, since this your first day of third year we will be having tests to determine how much you remember from over the summer."  
"Aw~! That's not fun!" I heard Kikumaru-kun cutely whine in front of me.

"Eiji~" Came what may have been Fuji's lame attempt at calming him down among the loud groans of the class. Personally, it wasn't a big deal. They just wanted to see where we all were academics wise. It wasn't like they did it just to make them mad. I suppose I could understand where they were coming from though, school just started and all that. Hm. Maybe I should have been angry also.

"Quiet down class!" Maybe I should have groaned with the rest of them. By then it was too late, however, and I sighed. "Anyway, here's the tests"-In one hand was a mountain of papers, which was amazing, and in the other was a large plastic cup with Popsicle sticks in it. -"and I will randomly choose a student to pass out the tests!" She shook up the cup and pulled a stick out. I hoped that it wasn't me. I had a tendency to shake and tremble whenever I stood up in front of crowds. "And it's...Masaoka Nasui!"

A smile broke out on my lips like foam out of a shaken up soda. It wasn't me! Luck be a lady tonight! I glanced at the test. It would be a multitude of subjects, I could just tell from the mixture of complex algebra, science questions and grammar errors that we were meant to fix on the very first page. Most of the questions were pretty tough but I answered them anyway.

"Hey, Saitou-Chan?" I looked up to Kikumaru-kun's whisper, a flush of expectation on my face. My gosh, was it obvious? The question was killing me at that moment.

"Yeah?" I whispered back, curious and anticipating something.

"Can I borrow a pencil? Mine broke, nya," he whined quietly in an extremely cute, blush-worthy way.

"S-sure," I reached into my desk and unzipped my handy dandy lime green pencil case, finding a small orange lead pencil. It was brand new too. At first I didn't want to let it go, it being new and super soft and easy to use, but it was the last spare I had and I really didn't want to disappoint Kikumaru-kun... "Here you go."

His hand reached out and grabbed the pencil that was laying on my open palm. His fingers brushed against mine and I blushed heavily, even as he turned around and did his work.

Damn teenage hormones and damn finger touching and damn one sided crushes. Yup, I should have been happy but now it was probably gonna be hard to hide my crush and all that...It was sort of playing out like a Girl's Manga or something, when I thought about it. Usually, it would've boded well if I sat behind my crush but I wasn't at all pretty or charismatic so my crush would never notice me. What a sad, sad fate the Angels have given me...

~I~R~I~S~

Sorry I haven't updated! School just started and all...By the way, I gotta give lots of thanks to Ranabanana Thingamabob, who's helping me plot out the story...so...thanks!


	3. It just died

Iris

Salty- Okay! Here's chapter three! Enjoy, if you dare! I don't own PoT.

AussieGirl411- Yay! I'm glad you liked it! Lolz, the jokes were just random stuffs I made on the spot. Thanks for the correction! I always make that mistake...my friends always make fun of me for stuff like that. The title, Iris, is based on the song Iris by the Goo Goo dolls. Actually, I heard the song on an 'I love the 90's' special and then inspiration hit me! And it brought back _so_ many memories; my mom played that song all the time.

Coco96- I know how that feels too...TT-TT When I was in elementary school, my head would get hit by a ball every day. ON ACCIDENT! Hm...maybe I should make that a recurring thing...

Yasu Yoake- GASP! Maybe we got to the same school? .

2. It just died

A long time ago, when animals could talk and angels roamed the earth and skies, there was a rogue human on Earth. This human was the first of its kind and very lonely. But eventually the angels came down and found him among the animals and tried to explain how he got to be there. Perhaps the human had been created by accident? The angels looked to the human and themselves and when they saw that they looked similar, they asked if he was one of them.

"No," he said evenly. "I do not have wings and I can't fly so I'm probably not an angel."

The angels asked if he was a prince, he replied no. They asked many more questions, each replied the same way. Eventually, they had to name the human and so called it HU Man, which is what we now called a human. And that is the story of how the human got it's name! Or at least a story that my mom read to me out of a children's book and chose to believe. I used to laugh at the story and make fun of it, but now...I cherish it.

After all, it is one of the last few items left for me to remember my parents along with a picture of us all together, when my four year old sister was still in mom's tummy and my little brother in my arms, a beanie and their house phone number for their apartment some miles away.

Yeah, they're not dead. Did you think that it was possible? Nope. Not at all. Actually, they've been living 'some miles away' because...well, it's a long story.

First of all, we all know that the economy's in a choke hold, right? So when all that happened my dad lost his job and mom had to support everyone, which was hard with a husband and three kids, so they had to let one of us get a job, and then two of us. The third of us was a bit too young for a job so it was up to me and my little bro.

Somehow, that evolved into us not having enough money for five people and now, here I am, all alone in this apartment.

I'm not mad at my parents though, not at all. I realized that it was the economy's fault, not my parents.

That's also why I'm devising a plan with my secret organization, Ex-Couronne, to destroy the different governments, starting with Asia, in order to create mass hysteria and inevitable world peace. Of course, it's easier said than done but with enough weapons and soldiers and my own small army, I believe it's possible. Kidding. Seriously, just kidding. That would've been a cool movie though...

But anyway, you may be wondering the relevance of this small story to the main one? Well...that one goes with the next one...

~I~R~I~S~

In the beginning spring days of my third year, the skies seen from outside my apartments window, or at least what I could see beyond the thick trees, was surprisingly gray and ominous. It was obvious that it would begin to rain. Still, it was a weekend and my refrigerator was fully stocked so I didn't have to worry about going out for some time. Nevertheless, my weary stomach was growing tired of all of the frozen meals and health foods and hungered for something _real _like...a cheeseburger with lots of ketchup and mustard and pickles with a bit of relish and a coke on the side with French fries with lots and lots of salt...I was gonna start drooling.

Without thinking, I grabbed my wallet, my cellphone, keys and jacket on my way out and walked to the town where I could literally _feel _my burger waiting for me.

"Big sister! Wait for me~!" Great, my stomach had been making my ears hallucinate...That wasn't grammatically correct, was it? "Big sister!"

Apparently, I was imagining someone tapping on my black rain coat too. Just kidding, I wasn't _that _oblivious. It was, surprisingly, my little brother there waiting for me. At first I thought I was staring at my door, but then I realized that my door wasn't black with a designer logo on it. And then finally, I realized that I was looking at my not so little brother's t-shirt. He was only a first year in middle school but I only reached to about his shoulders. His blond hair was blond and his eyes were still caramel so I definitely knew it was him.

"Kazuma? What're you doing here?" So far, in the six months that I've lived in this apartment building, I usually had to visit my family. Not the other way around. _Never_ the other way around.

Kazuma, my little brother, looked up at me. His pretty lavender blue eyes locked onto me, and he grinned.

"What? A little bro can't visit his sister on a rainy day?" Ah, how I missed his sarcasm. Even though it was a joke I smothered him with a hug anyway. "You're weird, Kata-Chan." It was hard to hear his muffled reply but I squeezed him tighter. "Ah. Can't. Breath. KATSUMI!"

I let him go, quickly and saw how quickly he was panting. I didn't think I was hugging him _that_ hard.

"Ah...right..." I chuckled nervously. "Um...come inside, please." I pushed him inside my cream colored room and watched him stumble a bit before closing the door, giving the outside one last look. Why didn't the angels want me to get a burger? I haven't had one in a _year_!

Okay, I would just get one with Kazuma in a few minutes...yeah...and then I'll get my _precious._

He looked around the small living room for a moment.

"It's a bit cramped. I guess I can fit my books over there..." He was staring at the nearly empty book shelf in the corner.

"Um, what are you doing here?" I realized that that probably sounded offensive. "No offense." Like that'd help.

"Slightly offensive, but none taken." He shrugged. "Mom and dad can't afford me any more so I'm staying with you now. It's still illegal for me to live alone, let alone _rent,_ you know."

Technically, the legal age, I think, to live alone would be eighteen but my parents claimed independence or something and made them think I was sixteen. So, here I was. Illegal town.

"Yeah..." My mind was somewhere else, for some reason. "Did..." The words were still forming on the tip of my tongue. "Did dad...has he gotten a job?" And then my stomach chose to growl, reminding me of my mission. "Oh, wait, never mind. I really need to eat, are you coming too."

"Uh..."

"Good." I really needed a burger and no little bro of mine was gonna stand in my way.

And so, I re-grabbed my keys, wallet, and cellphone, re-walking out the door and walking down the stairs and across the street to my favorite burger place, Wacdonalds.

As soon as we entered the building, Kazuma stormed off to the large kiddy slides and hamster tubes that headed outside. It was good that he hadn't changed in six months.

"Momo! How could you be so mean? I've been treating you since _yesterday._ Is that not enough from your sempai?" I recognized that voice. It was Kikumaru-kun.

"But it's always the duty of a _sempai _to treat his _kouhai_!" I didn't know that one though. It was definitely a male about my age, I was sure of that.

"May I take your order, miss?" Ah! The order! I forgot about it...

"AH! Yeah, um, may I have a..." I glanced at the large menu board above him. "two large number three breakfast burgers, both with a hash brown and a soda." I could practically feel the burger on my lips but for now I had to suffice for drool. Ew.

"What type of soda, ma'am?" I didn't feel like having soda suddenly.

"Replace it with a Kikumaru-I mean orange juice! Orange juice!" Why the heck did I say Kikumaru when he was right behind me? What an idiotic thing to do...

"Hm? Did I hear my name?" Crap. Nooo! He couldn't see me now...It looked like I just rolled out of bed! Why oh why do I have to sit behind him diagonally?

"Okay! One orange juice coming up!" the order guy flashed me a grin and handed me a number.

"Th-thank you..." I muttered before walking to the tubes to attempt to find my little brother.

"Ah, Saisai-Chan!" Crap! I forgot that I was walking by his table.

"Yes?" Okay, I could do this. All I had to do was...uh...crap! Instinctively, I turned to his direction. Why did I have to do that?

"Ah! It is you, Saisai-Chan!" In my attempt not to look at Kikumaru-kun I caught of glance of the person that was demanding a free meal. It was a purple eyed, spiky black haired guy that I was sure I'd seen somewhere before.

"Eh, who're they, Kata-Chan?" There was suddenly an arm around my shoulder. It was a head of blond hair and a set of caramel brown eyes. I don't have to say who it was, right? It was pretty obvious.

The black haired person and Kikumaru-kun stared at Kazuma with a curious interest.

"Momoshiro Takeshi, second year at Seishun academy, call me Momo" he said with a prideful smirk. So _that's _where I saw him before. It was _all_ coming together now.

"Kikumaru Eiji, nya," he grinned. "I'm a third year in Saisai-Chan's class!" Ah~...why must he be so cute? I could've died right then in my brothers embrace...That didn't just sound weird to me, right?

"Hey, are you her boyfriend? Ah~to be young~," said Momo, and...WTF? My alleged boyfriend is tall freshman in middle school and my little brother. That's like...so many illegal things that I can't even count. AND I'M OLDER THAN MOMO!

"But Momo, she's your upperclassmen, and it's sort of nosy to announce that he's her boyfriend, nya,"

NOOOOOOO!

"Ah-No, he's-"

"What if I am?" He _**snuggled**_ his face to mine. "She is pretty cute though, right?" _WTF? _What had I missed in those six months away from him? What has my brother become? HE WAS JOKING RIGHT? _RIGHT?_

"Uh-uh, Kazuma, please don't...um..." What was going on? I was confused. The only straight thought in my head was that I hoped my brother hadn't turned to...ahem...well, I still don't want to say.

"Number 42! Your meal's ready!" Yay! Saved by the bell.

"Oh! T-that's mine. Gotta go..." I said, elbowing Kazuma in the gut before walking over and getting my order. Why, oh why didn't I get the meal to go? "Thanks..." I said to the cashier. He had a really good smile.

"I'm Mitsuo Tenshi," he said grinning. He was random, I supposed. I grinned anyway, pretty weirded out.

"Saitou Katsumi." I didn't want to talk to him anymore that I had to. I was tired. My brother was apparently in love with me or something. Today was just too much. All I wanted today was a nice cheeseburger. Or something. Why were the angels making me weary? Why? "I should be getting back...to-to my table."  
I nodded to him and glanced around for a table. The corner of my vision was locked onto Kikumaru-kun and Momo-Chan and Kazuma. They were _still _chatting at the table about something.

A part of me wanted to tell Kazuma to shut up and another wanted me to just sit at a booth in piece. I did the latter, not being good at confrontations or whatever you called it. It'd probably be too much trouble, anyway.

"Justin Timberlake!" I shouted, looking at the famous pop star that was standing before me, watching me eat my burger.

"I've come to take you away!" he said, as my heart started beating faster. He suddenly kneeled next to me and all of the people in McDonalds started clapping and the sun replaced the rain. He opened a small box and pulled out a ring. Somebody in the crowd whistled. "Will you marry me Jenny?"

"I'm not Jenny but okay!" He picked me up and carried me out of the restaurant, bridal style, until we sunk into the sherbet made cement in New York. Wait, what? That couldn't have been...right.

Quite suddenly, I found myself looking at a gray darkness. I lifted my head and found that I was still at WacDonalds, at my small booth next to the window where I could clearly see the rain splattering rather violently against the window next to me. It seemed as though it wanted to get me, actually. How funny. I yawned and remembered my dream.

Now thinking about it, I had probably came to WacDonalds by myself and dreamed that Kazuma came too and I saw Eiji and Momo-Chan. Wait, does that mean I made up Momo-Chan? How strange.

"Hey, Kata-Chan? Why're you all the way over there? Come over here!" Damn, I was gonna kill Kazuma when we got home.

"Coming..." I muttered in reply. They probably didn't hear me. I picked up my tray and walked over to where they sat on the other side of the establishment. Neither Kikumaru-kun nor Momo seemed to see me coming (both seemed to be having a burger eating contest, Momo was winning) but Kazuma was waving me over from where he sat. I tiredly slouched over, as my mother often called my way of walking, and drew over a chair to sit next to Momo and across from Kazuma who immediately started talking about...something. I didn't catch any of it since my attention immediately turned to my tasty looking breakfast burger. My hash brown looked pretty good too.

The first taste of my breakfast burger almost made me purr, I swore. Not cursed, I just meant...never mind.

"Can I have that?" asked Kikumaru, his mouth stuffed. It took me a moment to realize that he was pointing at my hash brown. His face just looked really...kind of gross. And something suddenly...just died. It was weird.

"No!" I hissed, snatching my hash brown away. "Oh! Ah...sorry. I just sorta like my hash browns."

I just hissed at my crush! Why? Wait...I didn't regret it like I usually would. How strange.

Kikumaru-kun, apparently not realizing how rude I probably was, started laughing.

"It's okay, nya. Momo-Chan gets the same way when I ask for his burger, nya." The said person hissed, some of his burger literally flying out of his mouth. Why did I have to be sitting next to him? A bit of his food landed on my face! EW!

Grabbing a napkin, I wiped the stuff of me like it could've been contaminated. It probably was! EW!

"Ew! Momo-Chan! That's not very nice!" whined Kikumaru-kun. He wasn't talking about me though, some of Momo-Chan's spit got onto Kikumaru-kun's food. And cheek. Ew.

"Um...Could I have a napkin?" I asked to Kikumaru-kun who did as I asked and immediately went back to talking to Momo and Kazuma as I wiped my cheek. As I was left to do nothing, I began to think about why I liked Kikumaru-kun. Now that I thought of it, it was probably just because he was cute. And, he wasn't really in my circle of friends, who's in high school. How had I come to like him at all, I wondered. He, now that I realize as I watched him talking with a full mouth(him, not me), was pretty much just a large human cat. Weird thought, yes, but I couldn't deny that it was somewhat true.

And then, the feeling that died came upon me again but this time, I was sure what it meant. I probably would never see Kikumaru Eiji as my crush again, I realized at the split moment he made a knock-knock joke that made the entire table laugh. I laughed too, though.

~I~R~I~S~

Katsumi- Wait, what? I'm over Eiji? How the hecking God are you gonna continue the story if I don't feel anything for him?

Salty- Um...you'll see. That's all I can say for now. Muahahahah...

Katsumi- 0-0


	4. Friends?

Iris

Salty- Rather abrupt ending, yes? Well, I'm sorry. Truly. I meant it to be _soo_ much better.

Thanks for the review Cocoa96! The boy's I've been around are gross, anyway(practically grown up with three slightly older uncles.)

Also, I realized that I contradicted myself in the last chapter. Kazuma has caramel brown eyes, not lavender. And, the most important of all, please review! The more reviews the better and faster I write!

3. Friends?

Upon arriving to school, I thought I felt the eyes of every single person at Seishun academy on my back, and I didn't know why. Perhaps it was because Kazuma, who girl's apparently found cute, was walking next to me, holding my hand. Just kidding, even _I _knew what was going on. They were probably thinking 'Hey, why's that plain looking girl with _that _guy?' or something along those lines. But he looked nothing like me so the rumors continued to spread, unfortunately.

And I didn't understand why Kazuma wanted to hold my hand, honestly. He said something about being scared about his first day, but I was positively sure that he was joking.

We cleared up the 'he was in love with me' misunderstanding yesterday too, when we got home. He was joking, thank God and the angels. But still, he was going to be grounded for about a week. No TV, video games or hanging out with Momo-Chan and Kikumaru-kun. It was good to be the oldest person in the house. Bossing people around was awesome!

Some time later, me and Kazuma split up by the main office after he got his paper work and he went off to class 1-4 while I went up the stairs to class 3-6. We both had homeroom, which he thought was amazing until I told him that _everyone_ had homeroom. We had laughed about it for a while...

Some minutes later, I was adjusting to the classroom and arranging the inner space in my desk with my books and the books I'd need for the next period. It was until I finished some minutes that I realized that I was the first one there. How strange. I hadn't realized that earlier...

I wasn't even early. Class was going to begin in twenty minutes. I swore that I saw my classmates down when I entered the school...In fact, I was sure that I someone from homeroom sleeping on a tree...Weird.

On a sudden random urge I looked out of my window and saw people down at the tennis courts...tons of girls, to be precise. Tons of boys were at another tennis court. It was hard to tell the exact faces of the people though. After about ten minutes of staring endlessly at a boring white board some people began to file into the room hurriedly-shoving one another-and sat in their seats. Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun were the last ones to enter some five minutes later. Unfortunately for them, the red haired lady(I forgot her name) that is our teacher came in early.

"You're both late," she stated the obvious while tapping a finger on her crossed arms. Both were gasping or clutching their sides, obviously having ran here from the tennis courts.

"Sorry..." Fuji managed to choke out in a rather hoarse voice. "We-we had tennis...practice..." He had a rather violent coughing fit while Kikumaru nodded.

"Well, all of your other team mates will be getting detention as well, and furthermore-"

"Um, teacher?" I raised my hand, surprising myself. "The clock's set early, actually. They're five minutes early."

Kikumaru-kun and Fuji-kun both sent me grateful looks, which made me feel really happy. Well...yes, happy and a bit proud too. I'd never really stuck up for anyone before. It was awesome!

"Hm?" The teacher looked at her wrist watch. "I suppose they are. Be thankful to Saitou-san, Kikumaru-san, Fuji-san." She took down the stern look she wore and gave them her usual wink. They both nodded, panting a little less heavily before walking to and collapsing into their seats. "Now today class..."

Both Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun said their thanks to me in whispers with their backs turned away, to which I smiled. They didn't see me though.

~I~R~I~S~

Some hours later I was sitting in my desk after a grueling hour of history and opening the handkerchief that was on top of my bento-box. It was leftovers from the dinner that I had made me and Kazuma the day before(the day we met Kikumaru-kun and Momo-Chan at WacDonalds.) I was pretty starving by that time so I increased my rhythm when getting out my blue bunny chopsticks and saying my thanks to the Angels(in my mind)before opening the case over the food and staring at my cold sushi and udon noodles. In my desk was a plastic water bottle, the reusable kind, that I'd probably drink. Probably not.

"Hey, Saisai-Chan!" called a voice while I was slurping a rather large noodle. It was unnecessary to look in order to recognize the voice-but I did-and I saw Kikumaru-kun running towards me and then sitting next to me.

"Hi." It was always awkward to talk to old crushes. In fact, there was without a doubt some bright pink on my cheeks.

"Thanks for saving us back there, really," said Fuji-san, smiling as he sat in the chair in front of me.

"We would've gotten detention for life, nya!" whined Kikumaru, frowning seriously.

"Yeah," I laughed. "A really close call." Though I tried my best, I couldn't keep a straight face.

"Nya, how's Kazuki-Chan?" That was the nickname he had made up for Kazuma. He didn't know his last name, after all.

"Uh, good. He was nervous for his first day of school."

"Who's Kazuki-san?" I looked to Fuji-san and felt a little guilty for having excluded him from the conversation.

"Um, his name's actually Kazuma."

"He's Saisai-Chan's boyfriend!" Oh no! I had forgotten to clear that whole thing up! NOOOOO!

"Oh, uh-"

"Whoa, having a boyfriend at this age?" Fuji looked at me, shockingly blue eyes opened in amazement.

"Ah, that's I've been trying to tell you, Kikumaru-san. Kazuma's my little brother. He was just teasing me."

The look that Kikumaru-san was one that was in no doubt surprised or shock. Fuji-san was just looking back and forth, seeming pretty amused, I think.

"B-but he's older than you!"

"Nope. Just a tall first year." He probably wasn't gonna get over his shock any time soon so I looked at Fuji to see his opinion on the subject. He didn't seem to have one. Suddenly, it dawned on me how strange it was to be talking so regularly to people. I really should have treasured it or something.

"Ah, you should really come to see us play at Tokizawa garden," said Fuji. He seemed to have wanted to say it for a while. "The tennis matches really _are_ interesting." He chuckled. "At least, people _seem_ to like them."

Me and Fuji both chuckled. He was still chuckling as he pulled out his bento-box—likewise wrapped in a handkerchief—which looked so good that I almost drooled. Fresh chuckles followed when he saw the way I looked at his lunch.

"Do you want some?" he asked, pausing to laugh in between. I shook my head. My family had a rule about taking food from others. No one around me knew about it though. They wouldn't understand and would probably think I was weird or something.

Even when I was talking a little with Fuji-san, I couldn't help but look at Kikumaru-san next to me, who was frozen in the same position for several minutes. Was it even possible to do that?

Finally, while me and Fuji started chatting about Kazuma—it was so exciting to hold a conversation!—he spoke up.

"So you guys are siblings and you're dating?" Was he...paying attention to what I was saying at all? Or, wait, had I said it wrong? Fuji seemed to understand, didn't he? What did I say?

"NO! No, no, no. _No. No. NO." _My ears were probably red and my cheeks were no doubt pink. "I-Didn't I-Uh-We're not dating. Really."

He sighed, relieved. "Ah..." Was all that he said before leaning back into his chair and slouching comfortably. And suddenly his face was right next to mine—so close in fact, that his face was almost a blur. "But, you're coming to Tokizawa gardens, right? Right?"

"Uh...Yeah." So, he was probably paying attention earlier..."When is it?"

"Next week Saturday," said Fuji-san, giving me a chance to look away from Kikumaru-san. "Around nine o'clock-ish. Can you make it?" I nodded. Though they didn't know, I was ecstatic! I'd never been invited to anything but birthday parties before!

"I'll definitely go!" Me and Fuji-san and Kikumaru-san ate our lunches and talked. I'd never been so happy!

~I~R~I~S~

About a week later I was looking for an outfit that would be suitable for a tennis match. Should I have gone casual, with jeans and such, or should I wear my uniform to show school pride? Should I have worn something nicer, like a button up shirt and a skirt? The idea were eating me alive until I found a loose dark red t-shirt and some nice skinny jeans. I wouldn't look great but I'd be comfortable. That's mostly what mattered.

Several minutes later, after taking a tram I arrived near the Tokizawa gardens and saw a sign on a brick wall that said Tokizawa Tennis Guardens. Beneath that was a small flier that spoke about the games that day. They also showed the match ups and how the people were 'seeded' or whatever. I didn't really understand it all so I just walked around the large, large, large tennis courts and tried to look for where Kikumaru-kun and Fuji-kun and Momo-Chan were playing—they had told me that Momo-Chan was on the team too!

After a really long time, I arrived in the correct tennis courts and found everyone in Seigaku bowing to some other people from across a net. Both sides were wearing different uniforms so I guessed that they were the different teams. And in a few moments, when the teams started to go through different exit gates, I knew what happened. Guess what?

A. I finally married Fred Figglehorn/Lucas Cruikshank.

B. Justing Timberlake shot me with lightning because he thought that I was cheating with Fred.

C. I was late.

Yup, it was A. We're gonna be so happy! Not, it was C. I wish it was one of the other two. Except B. I don't want B. Not at all.

"Saisai-Chan!" There in the middle of the line was Kikumaru-san, looking at me with a pout. "You didn't see my match!"

"Sorry!" I called to him as the cheering crowd surrounded him and the other players.

"Come to the sushi party then!" Dang it! I was already gonna be late for work.

"I have something! I'm sorry!" I called back. There was no response. He was gone and I felt a bit ashamed of myself.

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Katsumi, how dare you? Till next time everyone, please review! Oh yeah, by the way, this is before Echizen comes to the team.


	5. Extra chapter!

Iris

Salty- It's less than five minutes after I posted chapter 3 or 4. Let's see how far I can get! Please review! I don't own PoT, X box or Ave Maria by Beethoven. I do own Space Palerio 6, however, as well as the other five and my Ocs.

Chapter 4. Extra Chapter?

It was, I think, around sun set when Katsumi got back from her job, tired, discombobulated and what-not. The last level of Space Palerio 6 was way more important than seeing her come in. A few minutes later I heard the microwave beep three times and then start.

"I'm...making ramen..." I heard her weak, creepy call from the other side of the room; our kitchen.

"That's good!" I called back as I attempted to beat the stupid boss that didn't...want...to...die!

"Dinner's ready..." she called.

"_Five minutes!" _She shut up and I was a little closer to beating the boss. Don't judge me. That day was Saturday and the only day of the week that I had a day off from work. Let me tell you, I worked like five hours shifts and my boss was, like, a terrorist. The annoying _yet beautiful_ beeps of my video games were the only thing to calm down my heart-

"_Die you alien scum!"_ Boop. Beep, boop. Those three beeps were like The _Ave Maria_ to me. "I WON! WHO'S THE BOSS?"

"Eat your dinner."  
"Okay, okay, whatev-" I looked to Katsumi(who was standing behind me), who looked _way _more distraught than usual. Her hair was unbelievably messy and her eyes were scarier than what Momo-Chan described to be the monster called Kaidoh Kaoru(or Viper.)

"_I said_ 'Eat. Your. _Dinner_." Her head was tilted freakishly. It _so_ reminded me of that one chick from the ring. Seriously. If her hair was black instead of brown, she would be _perfect._ "_Now."_

Hastily, I dropped my controls to the ground(just low enough that it wouldn't break) and sprinted to the table where a small cup of microwave ramen sat sadly in front of me on the small table.

"Couldn't we get something, like, better?" Call me an idiot.  
"Well, _I'm sorry_! If only _we both_ had better jobs, _then_ we could afford something a _bit _better than _ramen_!" Oh hooray, she had snapped.

"Sorry..." I muttered, getting ready to eat the freaking ramen I'd had to eat for the past two weeks that I'd had to live with Katsumi. "What's up with you today?" Call me a mega-idiot.

Surprisingly, she sighed and sat down. She gave me with a look that our parents gave me when they were trying to calm themselves after nearly killing me.

"It's just that...I'm having a bad day...I'm an awful person..." She stopped there, and sighed. Suddenly, I had it. I wouldn't tell her until after we had ramen though.

Some ten minutes later, we finished our ramen and I dragged her to my video game station in front of the television on the floor and handed her a controller.

"What?" She picked up the controller like it was an intriguing dead bug and stared at it. I nearly smacked her.

"It's a Y-Box controller. You play video games with it. Try it. It's _fun._" She stared at it more. It was obvious that she wasn't convinced. "It relieves stress. Just do it."

She sighed and held the controller _upside down. _No way was anyone _that_ clueless!

"Other way." This time she held it _sideways. _Eventually, I just got so frustrated that I gave it to her the _right way_ and told her what all of the buttons did. She obviously did not take any of it in.

So, after that we played a completely stupid two way version of Space Palerio 6, which was most definitely my worst score _ever._ I had to both attack people and keep her safe simultaneously. But I suppose it was worth it though, she was smiling and laughing when we laughed at the end.

"Oh, that was so awesome!" She bellowed, her arms waving in the air. She dropped my favorite controller in the process. I could kill her. _Really, kill her._

"Did you forget whatever it was then?" I asked. Forget my earlier statement. I was an ultra-idiot.

Almost immediately, she slumped and sighed. All remains of my freaking good will were gone. Two hours wasted.

"Nope, I haven't." Her voice was so suddenly full of melancholy that I wondered what the heck she had done.

"What was it then?" It seriously couldn't have been _that _bad. She looked up at me, right into my eyes, and sighed.

"I missed Kikumaru-san's and Momo-Chan's tennis game." WTF?

I burst out laughing, and nearly rolled on the floor laughing out loud.

"That's it?" She frowned at me.

"You didn't see how disappointed Kikumaru-san looked..." No matter what, I couldn't stop laughing. My eyes were glued to the white ceiling, for some reason.  
"OMG! You're so _lame_! Who gets guilty over missing a tennis game for someone that they barely know?"

She frowned, I saw as my laughing came down a little.

"Shut up..." she sighed for nth time that day. "I'm going to bed!" I never stopped laughing. To think, my big sister was upset over the way Eiji-Chan looked at her! You'd think she liked him or-Oh god. No. That was _too_ hilarious.

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Well, I'm in a generous mood so I would like to share my greatness and infinite kindness(I wish but JK)by wanting one shot requests. I feel like making a one shot but I have no inspiration. If anyone has any ideas, review or give me a personal message or something.


	6. NervousnessTeen angstedness

Iris

Salty- Luckily, I've had a four day weekend away from school two weeks in a row. Except last time there was a family medical emergency so it became a five day weekend. Any who, I don't own PoT or The Vision of Escaflowne, which this chapter was very lightly based off of. Oh, yeah, sorry that the last chapter was rushed and messy. I got in a big rush and made it in one day. Okay! Back to Katsumi pov!

Cocoa96- I totally forgot to put Kazuma's name or anything. Sorry if it was confusing!

Chapter 5. Nervousness-Teen angsted-ness

The first morning of school at the very moment that I collapsed in my seat an image of a disappointed Momo-Chan and Fuji-san and Kikumaru-san appeared in my mind. I didn't want to disappoint them further by seeing them today(don't ask me how, but I knew that would have)but for the Angel's sake, I sit right behind both of them!

Lucky for me, they were both at tennis practice and I was early. It felt like just looking down at the courts would make me guilty so, for several minutes I tried to study. I didn't take a word in but something tried to reassure me that nothing was my fault and I was fussing over nothing. Yeah, right. Who was I kidding?

I stopped trying to study, though, when Mrs. red head-teacher lady saw Kikumaru-san and Fuji-san coming in late again. For a moment, I was gonna stand up and defend them but then I saw the time on my watch. They were actually four minutes late today. I couldn't defend them.

Kikumaru-san gave me a look for help. I shook my head, mouthing sorry. NO! My one chance to prove myself was gone...  
I just kept letting the both of them down. How awful was I? Don't call me a drama queen. I'm not. But I can't stand it when I'm all helpless or other people are and I can't help people! Why must teen angst suck?

"Well, Fuji-san and Kikumaru-san, I'm sorry but this time you really _are_ late." I glanced away from the two, trying not to make myself guilty, and saw that it had started raining outside. The weather people were wrong then, huh?

My two seat neighbors sat in front of me. I supposed that Ms. Red headed teacher lady was finished ranting.

A part of me wanted to talk to Kikumaru-san and Fuji-san but class had started, so I couldn't. I'd have to wait till lunch. I sighed. At least we wouldn't have physical education that day. Rain was good sometimes. Just sometimes.

~I~R~I~S~

Apparently, I was wrong. Our P.E. Teacher, the dictator that he was, had covered up the indoor swimming pool so that we could run _there_. Yup, it was just like Mr. Mochizuki to ruin rainy days.

Mochizuki Takei was a tall, wide built man with muscles on his muscles. He had a voice that would make a lion run away and a shiny bald head that would probably attract aliens if he didn't wear a baseball cap every single day!

"Okay slugs!" Did he seriously just call me a slug? "Today, we will be doing some running exercises! First, everyone will run a three laps around the gym while I wait in the stands. After everyone finishes in _two minutes _you will run up the stands _once_ and down the stands _once_. After that, you may take a thirty second break. Clear?"

Everyone nodded and said clear. Honestly, I had already forgotten it but I'd probably just follow people around that gym.

"Everyone form a straight line in front of me! These laps will be one at a time so that you can prove yourselves and I can record your first times!" NOOOO! "The first runner will be Akimoto Shigehate!" I watched the first runner, then the next and then the one after that and tried to remember the route that they took. After the tenth or so, I remembered it. I just wondered if I could do it or not when I was actually _out there_.

Eventually, a bit or so after Fuji-san and Kikumaru-san were finished and drinking out of their water bottles on the benches, it was my turn. I knew it before Mr. Mochizuki even shouted my name with that hoarse, over used voice of his.

I stepped up to the line and waited for him to say go before I started. Seconds felt like minutes and then hours until he finally said 'GO!'

I shot off as fast as I could and already felt tired in the first five seconds. But I pushed on as fast as my legs could take me and sped around the track three times. Then up the stadiums once and down. It went pretty fast, actually. I was tired and my chest was already hurting, but I didn't want Mr. Mochizuki to call me a slug or anything...If anything, I was a panda...A big fluffy panda with black and white fur...who was really soft and cuddly...and who Justin Timberlake would fall in love with...and he would fight over the panda with Fred and Justin Bieber would die...

Ah, the life...

"Saitou! Don't slow down! Keep running! Just go down the stadium!" I jogged down as fast as I could without tripping and falling down the stadium and somehow managed to sit down at the first bench I could find.

"Saisai-Chan!" I looked over, panted, and saw Kikumaru-san and Fuji-san. Fuji-san waved hello. Both looked quite energetic and happy. Especially Kikumaru-san. "You're done with your run?" He leaned in close to me. _Again._

"Yup," I grinned up to him and leaned forward so that I could see Fuji-san behind him. I smiled at Fuji-san. And then I remembered that I missed their game and stuff. "Ah," I leaned back so that could face both of them. "I'm really, really sorry that I missed your games!" I was sorry about that morning too, but it didn't seem worth mentioning.

Kikumaru-san just smiled at me.  
"No biggy!" He gave me a peace sign.

"Yes, we really don't blame you." I looked at Fuji-san. "You got lost and you had to go to work-"

"You lazy slug! Akishiba! _RUN FASTER!_" I glanced back at poor Akishiba, even though I had no idea who it was. It was a small first year boy, apparently.

"Right?" Apparently, Fuji-san didn't hear Mr. Mochizuki.

I nodded at him. Kikumaru-san suddenly put his hands on my shoulders and forced me to face him. He gave me a look of...amazement?

"Whoa! You work Saisai-san? That's so mature!" Eh? Really? Was it? I never, ever would have thought that someone would _respect_ someone getting a job at my age. Then again, he didn't really know the circumstances. Wait, would he have been even more respectful if he knew that I lived in an apartment? I couldn't tell him, though.

"I-it's not all that...It's just work and stuff. It's actually pretty stupid."

"Anyway," Fuji-san interjected and Kikumaru-san and me turned back to look at him. "You must come to our next game since you _so rudely_ skipped our other one." Despite his obvious joke, I pouted.

"Geez, Fujiko!" said Kikumaru-san, wearing a pout like mine. "We know it's not her fault! Don't tease people!"

Whoa. Fuji-san teased me...and Kikumaru-san defended me...? Did I have friends?

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Short, yes? Well, I dunno. I'm tired and it's only 11 o'clock for me right now!


	7. Befriending the crazies!

Iris

Salty- Whoohoo! New chapter! I am PUMPED! Standard disclaimers apply! Katsumi-Chan changed her honorifics!

Chapter 6. Befriending the crazies

The skies were a mixture of thin gray clouds and blue atmospheric whatever it was when I arrived at the wet, dewy Seishun academy tennis courts. After I had 'made up' with Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun, they both wanted me to go see them play tennis in action since I had missed their first game of the season.

Honestly, I had expected the boy's tennis courts to be a huge, high tech place but...that wasn't true at all. Everyone seemed to rely on only their rackets, bodies and tennis skills. It was sort of fascinating(and hilarious)to watch all of it happen. There were also a small number of boys(men or guys, whatever)wearing different jerseys than other people. After a few minutes it was obvious that those guys were on totally different levels from everyone else.

"Saitou-chan!" It was Fuji-kun's voice. I looked over and saw him jogging to me from one of the tennis courts. By the look of his sweat, his smile and the towel around his neck I would have guessed that he just had quite the exhilarating tennis tournament-whatever it's called. He panted a little as he stopped in front of me. Fuji-kun too wore the jersey of the better tennis players. How cool!  
"Ah, hi Fuji-kun," I said. My eyes searched around for either Kikumaru-kun or Momo-Chan. I found neither.

Fuji-kun laughed. Omg! Did he see me looking? Wait, why was I embarrassed? I had no reason to be!

"Eiji's in a match," said Fuji-kun. _He was still laughing!_ "Would you like to watch with me? My match just finished." I nodded. Fuji-kun started walking towards a court that was directly across from where he had just come from. I followed.

Outside the gate I peered my eyes out and saw...Kikumaru-kun in the jersey! He was staring intently across the net at his opponent-obviously a second year-who was in some weird position. He didn't wear the jersey that the others had.

"That's Arai-san across from Eiji," Fuji whispered down to me. I nodded. Kikumaru-kun suddenly began to twirl his racket over his wrist. "He's serious," said Fuji. I was gonna look up to him but the ref said that Kikumaru-kun was supposed to serve, so I didn't.

"Heh, he really _is _serious!" said an excited voice next to me. I glanced over and saw a girl standing next to me. She looked really familiar but I couldn't place her...

"Queen Murasaki," Fuji nodded, not looking to her. Queen Murasaki? Why did he call her queen Murasaki? I had a feeling that I was gonna find out sooner of later.

I went back to watching the game, unaware that I hadn't been paying attention. Wait, it was already five games to one? Either I was really interested in whatever I was looking at or that second year-Aro or something-sucked!

It was that Aro person's serve now. Even though he was losing, he was smirking. Or at least trying to. He threw the ball up in the air, lined up the racket, and smacked the ball to Kikumaru-kun. Like he knew it was coming, Kikumaru-kun did a _skillful _diveand smacked it right back. It was awesome!

"Hoi hoi!" He smiled and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Fuji-kun chuckled about something next to me.

"Oh~" Queen Murasaki said...or hummed? I wondered what they were talking about but my eyes were glued to Kikumaru-kun and what's his name. It was really weird, though, to see someone I saw sitting in a desk all day being so...active. I wondered what Fuji-kun looked like while playing tennis. Aw, now the game was over...

"Whoohoo!" Kikumaru-kun raised his arms up and twirled around and around and around. Aro-or whatever his name was-was frowning and resting on the floor. "Saisai-Chan! Fujiko! Raki-Chan!"

Oh, he saw us. I waved back to him, and Fuji-kun did too. Queen Murasaki just rolled her eyes.

"Raki-Chan...?" She muttered lowly, obviously annoyed. I could practically hear the forehead-vain in her voice.

"I won!" he shouted while waving his racket around dangerously. Me and Fuji-kun started laughing. Raki-Chan snickered.

"D-don't do that, K-Kikumaru-kun!" I had to try to make myself stop laughing...which came out unsuccessful. "Y-you're gonna hurt yourself!"

He froze and gave me a curious, innocent look. And then, he grinned.

"Don't worry!" he waved _even harder and faster._ Gah, I hated being a worry wart!

"Eiji!" Fuji-kun cupped his hands around his mouth(like a megaphone.) "I think you're gonna give her a seizure!"

He, Fuji-kun and Raki-Chan started laughing. I pouted, even as Kikumaru-kun walked out of the gate and stood beside all of us.

"I think that was my last match for today!" he said cheerfully, with his arms and racket behind his back.

"And _unfortunately_, I have a match in about ten more minutes," said Fuji-kun, sighing. I was pretty sure that he was joking, though. It was fairly obvious that he really wanted to go to the next match very badly.

"See ya!" Kikumaru-kun waved, grinning.  
"Bye bye," Raki-Chan smirked. "See y-"

"Echizen! _Echizen! Fight-o!" _Almost at once, all of us looked to the source of the noise, a second year girl with short, _blue _hair? Dang, she was loud.

"You!" A brown haired person(I said person because I wasn't sure of their gender)yelled out, pointing to the louder blunette. "Please, do not interrupt practice. We could hear you from the girl's tennis courts."

It seemed that everyone had paused, with the exception of the players, to look towards the two people. When I looked again, I realized that the person who was not blue haired was quite obviously a girl. Her brown hair was a bit longer than the average boys, her dark green eyes were too big to belong to a male. I was proved wrong in my assumption about five seconds later.

Out of the gates came a boy-I knew this because he was wearing the male uniform-with _huge _gold eyes and slightly longer-than-average-black hair. Wow. I had never been more gender confused.

"Echizen!" The loud blunette hugged the 'boy' till he was slightly purple. "You won!"

The boy rubbed his neck after he was released. "Yeah, I did." He rolled his eyes and smirked.

"Hey," Raki-Chan suddenly abandoned me and Kikumaru-who was looking at the boy with intrigue-and walked to the boy. "Don't be so stoic to your elders!" Her fist softly pounded against the top of the boy's white cap.

Suddenly, I was aware that I was completely in the background. It was just a thought, though.

"I'm not, old lady." Raki-Chan's eye twitched. Kikumaru-kun shivered. I couldn't turn my eyes away, but everyone else went back to their own business, surprisingly.

"_What_? What'd you just call me, _shorty_?" Raki-Chan's eyes narrowed and a way too big grin was on her face.

"Ah, Mura-"

"_Shut up!"_ It was the short girl/boy who had came from the girl's tennis courts that spoke up. "Run thirty laps _now!_" The three people ran without hesitation. I almost did as well. Dang, that person was loud _and_ scary. _And walking right to me!_

"You okay?" they asked, _to me! _They were eying me with actual concern!

"Uh, uh yeah! I'm fine!" I glanced at Kikumaru-kun besides me, who looked surprised as well.

"Good. You looked like you were about to have a spazz attack or something." _Gah_! I did? What the heck had I been doing? Did I look like a freak! Why did I keep looking like I was about to have a seizure?  
"T-thanks...?" The person nodded.

"No problem. Those three are usually being really noisy around here. And school only began three weeks ago!" The person gave a dry little laugh. At that point I realized how much taller I was than the person. Was the person a first year? "Oh!" They looked up to me. "I'm Kawazoe Chiaki. I'm the girl's tennis team captain!" I smiled as _she _held out her hand for me to shake.

"I'm Saitou Katsumi. I'm...not really in a club or anything..." I shook her hand. Almost immediately after I released, Kikumaru-kun took hold of her hand.

"I'm Kikumaru Eiji!" He shook her hand excitedly.

"I-I know!" Kawazoe-san furrowed her eyebrows. Kikumaru-kun pouted.

"You're so mean, Wazo-Chan!" I laughed. And unexpectedly soon, tennis practice was over.

~I~R~I~S~

I'd learned some more from Kawazoe-chan(she made me switch honorifics)during tennis practice. The people who she had talked to were regularly being noisy. Raki-chan, or Murasaki Tenjo, was new at the school and had a crush on Tezuka Kunimitsu. Okay, pause. I had heard a lot about this Tezuka and, from what I had gathered, he was a freakishly tall, intimidating beast. Seriously.

The boy with huge, creepy gold eyes was Echizen Ryoma. He was a freshman that was attempting to become a regular. The girl cheering him on was his girlfriend or something. Her name was Tsuchida Kamo. Apparently, she was _really _annoying.

Kawazoe-chan also told me to avoid Raki-chan because she was apparently very mean. But, Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun seemed to like her so...I wasn't sure what to believe. Then again, Fuji-kun did call her _Queen _Murasaki. Could that have meant something?

~I~R~I~S~

After tennis practice ended, I chose to run up the lesser used hallways and corridors to class. The others ways were jam packed with students.

"Saitou-sempai!" I looked down from the stairs I was currently walking on and saw a familiar first year student running up the stairs towards me-but I had no time for him.  
"I'm sorry! Class-I have to..." Oh, class! _Where for art thou or something similar!_

"Sempai!" He ran up-surprisingly quickly-and blocked my way up to the stairs so that I _had _to look at him and his...surprisingly serious chestnut eyes...When he saw that he had my attention, he crossed his arms. "Please join the track team!"

Eh?

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Five...four...three...two...done! Officially done! WOOHOOO!


	8. Charismatic spooky talesPart one

Iris

Salty- Oh! Thank you to all who review! EEE! I, like, don't die inside when I get them! JK! I'm not _that _emo! Hohohohoho! Any who, I'm in a good mood so...early chapter! Oh, yes, Kuma is the Japanese word for bear, the animal, yes.

Thank you to...

Raf Kowalski, FleurSuoh, and Coco96!

Chapter 7. Charismatic Spooky Tales(Part one)

Kikumaru Pov-

Packing...packing...What should I have brought to Saisai-chan's house? Me and Fujiko-chan were having a sleep over at her house for an over-the-weekend school project...but other than school stuff, I couldn't think of what to bring. It was especially weird since it was the first time I was going to a girl's house.

Mom and dad would have flipped, so I hadn't told them. Yet. But, Fujiko-Chan and Raki-Chan were going so I suppose it would be fine...but it was a wonder that her parents let her have a sleep over with two boys! Mine would probably kill me(if it were reversed, with two girls)!

After a while, I decided to pack up regular mismatched clothes for pajamas and extra-sets of clothes and my backup tooth-brush set. Kuma-chan, my teddy bear, was my main problem.

I wanted to bring him to the slumber party, but what if it made me look girlie and childish? Saisai-chan was new and I didn't want her to think I was childish! In a way, she was like my clean slate, since I hadn't done anything embarrassing in front of her...so...I couldn't be myself!  
Or, maybe I should have been myself...The topic was starting to feel more serious than it should have been. And...Kuma-chan would miss me! Well, there was only one way to know for sure.

I sat Kuma-chan onto my bed and petted its light brown fur...that kind of looked like Fujiko-chan's hair, scarily. Then, I stared into its large droopy blue eyes that, again, looked a lot like Fujiko-chan's. Why did I buy it again? Oh, yes, Fujiko-chan bought it for me as a present. Maybe if I brought it Saisai-chan would think that I was obsessed with Fujiko-chan! I couldn't let that happen! No way!

Several minutes of self argument later and I was ready to go! Saisai-chan had given me and Fujiko-chan and Raki-chan directions to her house-actually, it was an apartment complex, and judging by the directions it would only take about an hour. By train. She lived across town!

~I~R~I~S~

When I got there, I saw her almost immediately. Even though it was a really cold spring day, she was out on her balcony in a dark green trench coat and jeans, staring out into space...at the WacDonalds across the street. Her apartment, meanwhile, wasn't bad.

It was more like a motel than anything, in that you saw the doors to the homes immediately and that there was a large, lit up sign above the third floor. According to the directions, her home was the third to the left of the stairs.

I got up there, but she was still staring at the WacDonalds.

"Burger..." she murmured. I burst out laughing. It was then that she noticed me(with wide eyes). "K-Kikumaru-kun!" Ah, it was sort of cute. I couldn't stop laughing, though.

"Burger! It was so random!" She pouted and I tried to stop laughing, as best as I could. I did, but I was still grinning. "S-sorry."

Her eyes shifted and lingered on the tree next to me for a moment. Then she looked to me and pointed at the door.  
"U-um...Fuji-kun and Murasaki-san are already in...I was just...waiting for you..." She waited? For me? How nice! "And Kazuma's here too..."  
"Your boyfriend?"  
"Brother!" I already knew but it was fun to see the flustered look on her face...Wait, was I becoming a sadist like Fujiko-chan? NO!

She opened the door and stepped in, so I followed her to what looked like the living room. On the cream colored carpet was Kazuki-chan and Raki-chan playing some board game and near a desk and large computer was Fujiko-chan spinning in a computer chair with amazing speed. It was almost hilarious, but not, for some reason.

"It's freaking cold in here, Kata-chan!" Kazuki-chan whined. Then he looked up, about to glare at her and grinned when he saw me. "Yo, Eiji-chan!"

Raki-chan looked up too.  
"Ah, Toothpaste-san." She looked back down to her colorful board game...wait...that was a Quirilu board! Wasn't that the cursed game that killed everyone who ever played? I backed away...slowly...

"Ei-" Fujiko-san paused as he spun in the other direction. "ji!"

"Mah, I thought I'd be the first to arrive..." Actually, I sort of hoped to talk to Saisai-chan about something...I couldn't really ask in front of everyone else...It was sort of private.

"Guess you were wrong, then, huh?" Saisai-chan looked at me and grinned, sort of shyly. Was she not comfortable with me and Fujiko-chan or Raki-chan yet? Guess I'd have to fix that!

~I~R~I~S~

After half of the project was done at about nine-ish at night, we decided to do the rest on the next day.

"Wah!" Raki-chan stretched out her arms. "I can't believe we did that much in a day! God must be smiling at us!" I didn't exactly understand what she meant, but me and everyone else agreed.

"And the angels, too..." said Saisai-chan across from me in the circle our group had made.

"Yeah," agreed Kazuki-chan, smiling at the ceiling. But what had they meant, exactly?

"I got it," said Raki-chan suddenly. "I know what's missing!" She looked to all of us with wide eyes, as though she had just had a really good idea. "Scary stories!"

_**!**_

B-but...Saisai-chan seemed the girlie type! She was shy too, so she probably _hated_ scary stuff!  
Why was she smiling so pleasantly?

"Go ahead," she cocked her head to the side. "I'm all for them!"

B-but...surely Fujiko-chan would sense how much I didn't want to hear them-and-and would decide to not hear them as well so I could leave the room or something! _Right? Right? Right?_

_**Why was he smiling too?**_

He looked right at me, eyes open and then looked to Raki-chan.

"Go ahead, but can I tell the last one? Eiji probably doesn't want to."

_**!**_

Then, then...then maybe Kazuki-chan secretly hated scary stuff!  
He frowned, and shrugged indifferently...

"Sure, whatever. I just suck at story telling, so don't expect me to say anything."

Why God, _why?_

"I'll start!" cheered Saisai-chan excitedly. She was nearly trembling with her excitement. And suddenly, the lights went out(actually, Kazuki-chan turned off the lights.) "This ghost story is called, Denim Curse." Her voice was unnaturally grave...and hoarse. "It begins with Yuki-chan. She was a rich girl, from Hyotei academy. One of the richest, actually. Some even say that she was a relative of the Atobe family..." She paused and took several raspy breaths...I realized that the little bit of light shining in from the window made her look very creepy, especially since it was only shining on her. "Anyway, Yuki-chan's evil was legendary. She treated her servants like dirt and bullied many of them. Especially, Hitoru-kun. He was several years older than her but she actually was in love with him. The only thing was, she had been excessively mean to him so he probably hated her. For several months, she became kind to him...and eventually told him how she felt. He accepted and they began dating. A year later, he became engaged to a family friend."

"What was her name?" asked Kazuki-chan, which was stupid. Saisai-chan gave him a feral glare.

"I dunno. Rika-chan. Anyway, Yuki-chan hated her and was jealous. So, by using her connections, she managed to get Rika-chan by herself and she strangled her with her own pair of denim jeans. When she felt that she could no longer _breath, _she left. She let her company clean everything up and nobody said a word, even though she had committed a murder."

She paused. My heart was starting to beat really fast because I already _knew _what was going to happen. The girl was going to extract revenge from beyond the grave or something.

"Afterwards, strange things began to happen to Yuki-chan. Weird thumps would occur from the drawer she kept her jeans in. Her clothes would mysteriously disappear or become destroyed. The man that she had murdered Rika-chan for died before their wedding. One day the company suddenly plunged into bankruptcy and Yuki-chan had to drop out of Hyotei and live in a box next to her mother outside of a public bathroom." She paused to lick her lips. "After that, the misfortunes stopped...for a day or two. One dark, dark night-one of the nights where you couldn't see out of your box-she heard noises. Weird, devilish noises that didn't make any sense..."  
"Such as...?" Raki-chan raised an eyebrow.

"I believe she was getting there, Murasaki-san." Fujiko-chan smiled at Raki-chan, then Saisai-chan. "Please continue."

"_Such as_ pig snorts or strange bubbling sounds. When she went out into the alley way of her box to figure out the source of the sound, she found nothing. After a few moments, though, she looked to the edge of the alley and saw it. The outline of a person with no head, holding a think piece of cloth. 'You've forgotten this, Yuki-chan...You mustn't be so...forgetful...' The outline came _closer and closer _but Yuki-chan was too curious to move. Eventually, she saw that the cloth in the person's hands was a blood soaked pair of jeans...The very same the strangled Rika-chan. She looked again and saw that the person was a pale skinned, bloodied person...It was Rika-chan. The zombie of Rika-chan continued to edge forward and lifted the denim jeans to stunned Yuki-chan's throat. '_Tit for tat, wouldn't you say?'_ asked Rika-chan. Yuki-chan nodded and, though it was surely her least moment, smirked. '_At least I got the guy, huh, Rika-chan.' _Afterwards_, _Yuki-chan was no more."

A pregnant silence filled the room.

"So, she died? That was it?" Raki-chan was clearly disappointed. "That was _way _too predictable." She threw her head back and start cackling, like a witch. I, on the other hand, was still shaking! My heart wouldn't stop pounding either! Why did Saisai-chan and Fujiko-chan have to like scary stuff?

Thunder sounded overhead and it began to rain.

"My turn," Raki-chan smiled maliciously. "Ohohoho...My story is one that I made myself!"

! Raki-chan was scary enough as it was!

"Mine is called, 'The Track Meet of Hell.'" She paused to clear her throat. "Once upon a cloudy day, such as this one, the Seishun academy track team was running about the track until rain pounded upon the field. Once that happened, they all went back into their sports shed. As time passed, the rain became rougher and rougher, and so they couldn't leave the shed. After a while, one of the members thought that they saw something outside of the shed. They went out to investigate, and some others followed. Um...what happened next...oh yeah! Uh, yeah, they went out onto the rainy track-even though the rain and night was so thick they couldn't see. They went out and around and didn't see anything. They went back to the shed and found all of the track members...murdered. Their blood was spilled all around and their limbs were scattered about. The boys were disgusted and so ran out in search of the murderer. What they didn't know was that he was just outside of the shed...and ready to slay them. And he did. The end."

"That was awful!" exclaimed Kazuki-chan. "Why was it night time when they went out! Weren't their parents worried about them or-"

"Excuse me," Fujiko-chan interrupted. It may have been just me but...his voice was calmer and clearer than usual. "I believe that it is my turn." He cleared his throat. "Please, do not take my story for granted. I assure you, it is very, very real."

"Why are we supposed to trust you?" asked Raki-chan. I just knew that she made a mistake.

"Because..." Fujiko-chan paused, smiled and rolled up his long sleeves and showed...bloody scratches! "I was the victim." Raki-chan had nothing to say. Neither did Kazuki-chan, but Saisai-chan was shivering. I think I was the most afraid, though. "Because it is true, I do not have a name for it. However, it has happened recently and I was very afraid, so I may not recall everything that happened. I will try to tell it to the best of my memory." He paused and frowned. "It all started the day that I thought I was being stalked. For some time, I had been roaming around Seishun city and I kept feeling like I was being watched. About a week ago, I confronted the stalker. It was a shy girl from our class. Her name was Dotari-san. When she saw me, she ran away. This confirmed my suspicions." What did that have to do with the scratches on his arms? "Two days ago I met her again, but that time she had confronted me. It was at the back of the school, while no one else was there. She told me that she had been watching me for a while...I told her that I knew. She smiled. I thought it was eerie, but ignored it."

He paused. Saisai-chan shivered again and Kazuki-chan started twitching.

"And then, she opened her mouth in a wider grin and I saw them...and I will never forget what she said after that. 'But there _is _something that you don't know about, Fuji-san!' There, I saw..."

He opened his eyes and mouth in a huge smile...like Dotari-san. There I saw..._them_. White...shining...twins...

"_Fangs!"_

~I~R~I~S~


	9. Charasmatic spooky talePart two

Iris

Salty- OMG! Twenty reviews! I was hoping for that by the time I ended the story! Oh, happy days! A very special thank you to...

Raf Kowalski, Coco96 and SakuraElieChan...

As a response, I wanted to change Pov because I read this thingy on some website that I should do the Pov in all character's povs. And don't worry, readers. Fuji _never _sparkles. If he did...the world may end. I think...? I don't own The Ring.

_Previously, on Iris..._

_He paused. Saisai-chan shivered again and Kazuki-chan started twitching._

"_And then, she opened her mouth in a wider grin and I saw them...and I will never forget what she said after that. 'But there **is** something that you don't know about, Fuji-san!' There, I saw..."_

_He opened his eyes and mouth in a huge smile...like Dotari-san. There I saw...**them**. White...shining...twins..._

"_**Fangs**!"_

Chapter Spooky Tales(Part two)

"_AHHHHHH!" _A girl shrieked...but it wasn't Saisai-chan or Raki-chan...It was Kazuki-chan? If I weren't so terrified by my fanged friend...I could have laughed...but...FUJIKO-CHAN HAD FANGS! And...was laughing like a pie had just been thrown at someones face...

"You-you should really see...your faces..." he paused between laughs, and paused again to take out his _plastic_ fangs. "B-but..." he paused again, and coughed into his fist. "that girl actually showed me fangs. But they were fake. She thought I'd enjoy the joke, and I did. It was a bit surprising though..." He rubbed the back of his head.

"You're so mean!" My first instinct after that was to pound his head in with Saisai-chan's couch pillows. Kazuki-chan and Raki-chan joined in...but Saisai-chan started staring at a door and told us to be quiet...or something. Nobody did it so I didn't either.

"I really mean it guys! SHUT UP!" I stopped, and so did Raki-chan and Kazuki-chan. That's the first time that I'd heard her yell! I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be scared or proud! "You'll awake..." She paused.

Kazuki-chan shivered and jumped into his sleeping bag. Raki-chan and Fujiko-chan shrugged and did the same so I did too. Why was Saisai-chan so jumpy? Everyone went to bed and Saisai-chan kept on staring at the door, looking scared. Why?

~I~R~I~S~

A white roof. That was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Which was weird. My room didn't have a bumpy white roof. Where was I?

Oh yeah! I was at Saisai-chan and Kazuki-chan's house! But where was I...? I gandered about my environment. On the other side of the room was Raki-chan and Fujiko-chan, both sleeping in separate directions. And Saisai-chan...was sitting up next to me! Touching...something metal in her teeth? She was taking out retainers!  
"You had braces, Saisai-chan?" She gave me a scary, surprised look that was similar to whenever I walked into my sister's room when she was kissing her boyfriend...She always hit me after that...That was enough to make me run!

I wasn't sure where to run...so I opened a door that I thought was the bathroom. I was extremely wrong.

Black darkness was surrounding me, like I was in a horror movie. In the darkness, there was a click and a small, dim light came on in the rear of the room. A face appeared. A mad face of a woman with long black hair. _It was Sadako from The Ring!_

"_Warum tut dir dringen in die Hhle der Finsternis_?" asked the face, mouth slinking back into the face in what seemed like a smile.

"Wha-"

"She said, 'Why doth thee intrude in the cave of darkness.' So the response is..._Weil ich Licht bin der sterblichen._ I just said, 'Because I am the mortal of light.'"

"Whoa!" I stared at her in amazement, momentarily forgetting Sadako in the corner. "You speak another language?"

She shook her head and smiled at Sadako, then me.

"No. I know how to say those words but I don't exactly know what they mean. She taught me what they mean, and I only know them because she says them all the time."

"I _do_ not!" It was Sadako who spoke! She could speak Japanese too? "I mean, I guess I've said it a few times, but..." Sadako...pouted?

"Kikumaru-kun," Saisai-chan looked at me and pointed to Sadako... "this is Yamashita Ren. Ren-chan, this is Kikumaru Eiji-kun." and vice-versa.

Sadako-Ah, Yama-chan, gave a sort of knowing look to Saisai-chan.

"_Ah! _Then this is the famous Kikumaru-kun, eh, Tsumi?" Tsumi? Ah, Saitou Ka_tsumi. _Maybe I should have used that from then on. Yama-chan(Or maybe Yashi or Mashi or Yata or Yashita?) winked at Saisai-chan. I almost laughed-a floating head in the dark winking! But...why did the head wink? Could Saisai-chan and her know something I didn't? Gah! It was a little frustrating!

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- I don't believe that there was any real importance for this chapter...but here it was!


	10. A very special birthday Saitou Katsumi!

Iris

Salty- I'm feeling very generous so...two in one! In honor of Kikumaru Eiji's birthday, November 28th! However, since it's only spring in my story, it shall be Katsumi's birthday! Sorry for the confusion in the last chapter, peoples! I reread it...because I didn't read it after I wrote it...sorry!  
A very special thanks to coco96 and ai-chan97. By the way, if you go to my profile there should be some links that show how Kazuma and everyone else looks. I don't own Saw or Harry Potter or The Annoying Orange or Justin Timberlake(there had been some controversy over that!)or Vocaloids or the song Kokoro by Rin and Len.

Chapter Ten. A very special birthday Saitou Katsumi!

Katsumi pov-

My birthday was always in the early spring. I always spent it with my family...but that year I couldn't. For about six months, I spent time by myself in an apartment because of my family's debt. After those months, I was seated behind Kikumaru Eiji and Fuji Syusuke, and Kazuma, my little brother, came to stay with me. I also made friends with Kawazoe Chiaki-the captain of the girl's tennis team-and Murasaki Tenjo-a mean girl that liked the scary boy's captain, Tezuka.

After I met them, I wasn't so lonely anymore. Actually, life had been a whole lot better!

But there was still a problem. That very year would be the first time that I'd ever had a birthday without my family. It was a downright depressing thing just to think!

My birthday was about three months after the start of school, on the fifteenth of June. So, I would have known all of my friends for about three months on my birthday.  
Do you see my dilemma? I wasn't sure if I knew them enough to invite them to my party! I mean...yeah, they were sort of my first and only friends, other than Ren-chan but...Ah! What should I have done?

~I~R~I~S~

On the way to school the next day, June eleventh, I inwardly debated on the topic of inviting everyone to the party I was holding. The invitations were in my backpack...I even made sure that the date didn't coincide with tennis practice and discretely asked whether any of them were doing anything that day. Everything was set, but...Ah! Damn teen angst!

In class, I sat in my desk and sighed repeatedly, until one of my seat mates came in.

"What's up with you?" asked the girl who sat next to me-whose name I didn't bother to remember. "You seem all gloomy and junk."

I shook my head and attempted a smile. It wouldn't be right to unload all of my problems to a stranger and potentially ruin their day or something.

Maybe I should do that thingy where you pass people notes saying 'Will you go?' Ah, I could've just put in on their desks, that way they wouldn't have to say no to my face! Ingenious!

So, I got to work. Step one, rip out notebook paper and tear into five pieces. Done! Then write will you go to my birthday party on the fifteenth and my name...done!

After that, I walked around the classroom and put the note to their desks. Then all I had to do was sit and wait for them to come from tennis practice...late again...for ten minutes...  
In that ten minutes I could take the notes back and not tell them about my party and just say that it was my birthday...Or maybe I shouldn't have planned my own party. Maybe I should have done nothing!

_Bad thoughts. Bad thoughts!_ Gah, what would Justin Timberlake do?

"Seriously," said the person next to me. "Are you, like, having a seizure?"

I shook my head. What had I been doing? Was I twitching or hyperventilating?

"Yo, Tsumi-chan!" Ah, Kikumaru-kun! No, now I couldn't take back the notes! Kikumaru-kun smiled at me.

"Ah, hello...Kikumaru-kun..."

"Hello, Saitou-chan." Fuji came in and nodded to me.

I smiled at him.  
"Hello, Fuji-kun." I watched them both sit at their desks and notice the notes.

"Oh? What's this?" asked Fuji-kun. I tried to imagine his expression and Kikumaru-kun's but found it difficult.

"Oh! I got one too!" Kikumaru-kun pulled out his note and showed it to Fuji-kun.

"Well, read it then..." I said quietly. I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible!

"Okay! Hm..." Kikumaru-kun and Fuji-kun unfolded their notes simultaneously. Ah, how I wished I could see their expressions! Why couldn't I have been seated in front of them?

"Okay!" They both said, and turned back to face me.

"I can go! Looking forward to it!" said Kikumaru-kun.

"I can too." Fuji-kun smiled. I let out the breath that I had been holding for so long.

"I'm glad!" I smiled at them.

~I~R~I~S~

Time passed aimlessly, and then the weekend came. My birthday was on a Saturday at a karaoke and burger place called Tohru's place. It was supposed have really good food.

In the days leading to my party, I searched for the perfect birthday outfit until I could narrow it down to two. The one I chose in the end was a casual baby blue button up shirt and a denim blue skirt. My shoes were ordinary brown ones and my socks were knee high.

For about an hour, some hours before my party, I stared at my reflection after dressing in those clothes. My chestnut-ish brown hair-that came to my chest-would definitely need some work. My skin looked too pale that day as well and my light brown eyes looked really plain.

There was only one thing to do about it.

I walked out of my pink and white bedroom and into the black and red apartment next door, aka Ren-chan's room.

"Ren-chan! I need some help!" I called through the frightening darkness to which she preferred.

"_Shut the door!"_ She hissed. I closed it and was trapped in _complete_ darkness. The was a rustling and a tickling feeling at my feet. "Now, what is it child?"

I pouted, even though she couldn't see it. "You're only two years older than me, Ren-chan. And anyway, aren't you getting ready for the party?"

There was a spine chilling chuckle from the rear of the room and a bright red light turned on from above. Like usual, I glanced about the pictures of blood and dead people around the room. There was a couple of new ones. Oh, she wasn't a murderer. She just had an obsession with death since her dad was a coroner for some police station in town.

"I am always ready, Tsumi-chan." I glanced at her gothic outfit, unsurprised. High black boots with tons of buckles were the first things that caught my eyes. Then I saw her outfit. A little black dress with denim boot cut jeans underneath. Her black dress had a surprisingly low and had a thin v-cut to it(I could see her belly button)and her straps were t-shirt cut. It was actually a little better than usual.

"Nice," I grinned. "Any who, I need some advice. It's in your area of expertise." Ren-chan loved makeup of the gothic persuasion. I hated it, personally, but I wanted to let that slip a little for today.

"You need to kill someone without leaving any evidence behind?" She was joking. I shook my head, not at all shocked.

"No, I need you to do my makeup for the party." One of the reasons that I hated makeup was that I couldn't apply it properly. She nodded and I saw her usual malicious grin on her pale face. I stopped fearing that grin in the second grade, honestly, though most people feared it. I knew that Kikumaru-kun definitely did!

Some time later, I was staring at myself in Ren-chan's black Victorian style mirror and watching as she did my hair in a cute bun. Admittedly, I looked pretty good. My eyelashes were pulled up slightly and the makeup wasn't too heavy either. When I came in, I almost expected myself to come out as that guy from that one horror movie...Saw? Yeah, the emo clown from Saw. But, I definitely didn't, I thought with a glance at my slightly pinkened lips. The guy from Saw didn't look cute at all!

I giggled at the thought and Ren-chan karate chopped my neck!

"Ow! What was that for?" I was about to turn my head back to her but she snapped it into place.

"Shut up and stay still! A person's hair is very hard to do! One wrong move and you'll become Bellatrix LeStrange!" I grimaced but didn't move anymore. Instead, I looked at Ren-chan's straight, black hair. Then her dark blue eyes, and sighed. She could be cute if she worked on herself a little-like wearing lighter clothes, for instance-but she didn't and so she was just a goth. Just a goth...

"Done!" she grinned happily and my eyes went back to myself and swam in disbelief. I was adorable! My hair was hanging down in my face just a little but the rest was in the promised cute bun. My usual bowl-cut bangs were clipped out of my face in a way that made me look really mature too! I no longer looked like a child!

~I~R~I~S~

At the restaurant, me and Ren-chan got seated in the orange restaurant portion of the store. It was only a couple of minutes before the first guest stumbled in. It was Kazuma, who had been stuck in his video game club for nearly all day. When he came in he was stretching his arms and I almost immediately noticed the dark circles around his eyes.

"We played Galacto-Battles for four hours," he smiled and then yawned. "I'll just take a nap, then." He laid down on a red cushioned bench. "Wake me up when the party ends."

He yawned again and almost immediately started snoring like a whale.

Ren-chan started laughing.

"He really doesn't change, that mortal."

We waited until almost everyone came until we started the party. Raki-chan and some others were the last to come in. We waited for a few minutes until it was evident that Kikumaru-kun wasn't coming.

"Who are these people?" asked Kawazoe-chan, edging away from a group of surrounding emo-looking high school boys that were apparently determined to sing karaoke with her.

"Uh...Probably her friends." I pointed to Ren-chan on the chairs next to me.

"I don't know them," she shook her with a glare at me. I had forgotten that she hated boys that were taller than her. "They're probably just party crashers."

I sighed.

"Dang it!" I was mad enough as it was. Kikumaru-kun said that he would come...But maybe I was expecting too much. We _had _only been friends for about three months. Still...

"Hey, Saitou-chan," Fuji-kun sat down at the table where me, Ren-chan and Kawazoe-chan were sitting. "And Kawazoe-san." He nodded and then stared at Ren-chan curiously. Only Kikumaru-kun had seen her at the party. "And Yamashita-san? What're you doing here?"

Eh? They knew each other?

"What a shocking finding? What shall our main protagonist, Katsumi-chan, do about this?" I looked to Kawazoe-chan and tried to understand what she had said.

"Why am I the protagonist?" I asked, as calmly as I could to someone messing with the fourth wall.

"Dunno," she shrugged indifferently. "Seemed like fun!"

"So, how do you know each other?" asked one of the emo boys, suddenly sitting next to Fuji-kun across from us.

"I know her little sister..."said Fuji-kun. "Kakeru-chan...Second year in our school..."

Ah, Kakeru-chan. The famous tomboy second year of Seigaku. I met her once but she didn't seem to like me, so we didn't talk a lot.

"I just didn't know that Yamashita-san lived next to Saitou-chan. It's quite the coincidence." He chuckled.

"Anyway," said Kawazoe-chan, standing and tugging on my arm so I did as well. "Let's go karaoke!"

Suddenly, I was on the dance floor with a mike in my hand and a television screen in front of me and Kawazoe next to me, winking. "Let's go with a happy song! Mm...Vocaloids would be good...Let's sing the Kokoro duet!"

I nodded, though I had no idea what the heck she was talking about.

All of a sudden, there was really loud music and I had no time to ask.

Apparently, Kawazoe-chan had the part of Len and I had Rin.

"Robot made by solitary scientist,

To say how it's done...

Miracle!

But still missing

one thing that just can't be made

That is called Kokoro.

A program."

Rin- "Few hundred years pass"

Len- "I hope I could share with her"

Rin- "left alone"

Len- "happiness, sadness as human"

Rin- "Robot of miracle"

Len- "Scientist of miracle"

Both- "Hopes"  
Rin- "Want to know what that man was"

Len- "Distress continues"

Rin- "Till end of his life"

Len- "Only time passes by"

Rin- "Making for me"  
Len- "With a singing voice that was left behind and..."

Both "Kokoro."

And then we sang and sang...and I couldn't stop thinking about how weird it was that I got over my sadness over Kikumaru-kun so quickly. But...I've only been friends with him for three months, so it's okay, right? It's not like he made an obligation...Did he even say that he was coming?

"Greetings!" the restaurant people greeted. I didn't look back to see the late comer, the party was ending soon anyway.

I was on my twenty first song, and my last one. Nothing much mattered anymore.

"Ah! You're that Kikumaru-mortal, are you not!" I pushed my mike into Kawazoe-chan's hand and looked behind me to see a tired, panting Kikumaru-kun.

_He came!_

"Sorry I'm late!" he said, running up to me. He looked down at me and grinned. Because I'm really close to his shoulder in height, I saw him reach into his coat chest-pocket thingy and pull out a small brown paper bag. "Here! It took me all day to locate the best present!"

He was _so _exaggerating! But...I was really curious...I grabbed it and pulled out a little bright pink box with a ribbon on it. I carefully pulled off the ribbon and the box to find...That white stuff that cushions it. I put all that useless stuff on the table and saw...a little blue sea glass necklace!

It had what looked like golden claws attached to it to hold it up, and it looked like a really fat tear drop! The actually lace thing was a gold-ish strings with two silver clasps at the end. It was so cute!

"Thanks..." I grinned up at him and he gave me both a grin and a thumbs up.

He came...! Now, even though my party was almost over, I could celebrate with all of my friends! It felt so great to think that...that I smiled and thanked him again.

"Cake!" And then, I had the best triple chocolate cake that a goth girl could make. How great could a birthday get?

~I~R~I~S~

Salty-So...Review! Tell me how much this rocks or sucks! Go ahead! Push that button down over there! Go on! CHUUCAUNDOEET! (I will not say what that means.) I'll try my best to update again this weekend!


	11. Justin Timberlake came to my house!

Iris

Salty- Please Enjoy. Don't own Pot and I probably won't by the time this story ends so...Can I not say it anymore? I don't wanna!

Thanks Coco96. You said soon so~...TADAH!

Chapter 11. Justin Timberlake came to my house!

Kikumaru pov-

OMG. OMG. OMG! This morning, I got a message from Kazuki-chan. Something _really really bad _happened to Tsumi-chan. He didn't tell me what but he said that it was an emergency. I had to get to their house right away. Unfortunately, those dang trains didn't move fast enough!

Why did I have to live on the other side of town? Ugh! I hoped that Kazuki-chan could handle whatever what was happening!

~I~R~I~S~

"You _liar!"_

Kazuki-chan's a liar! Tsumi-chan just had a little cold!

"I'm not a liar," he sighed. There were dark circles under his eyes and there were tons of band-aids on his fingers. "Kata-chan becomes a vegetable when she gets a cold. It's like taking care of a frigging two month old." He pointed to a large heap of colorful blankets that I hadn't seen before, which was weird because it was in the middle of the floor in front of me and almost reached my hips! "If you dig into those for a bit, you'll see what I mean, so shut the heck up."

I raised my arms in defense before pulling the(shivering)blankets apart. After a while, I saw bits of light brown hair. It was chestnut, like Tsumi-chan's!

I explored further and found an eye and an ear and a chin. So far, it was only half of Tsumi-chan's face.

"Tsumi-chan!" The eye stared at me, or through me, blankly.

"Justin...Timberlake?" Her voice was high, and happy, like a child's. "Hello...Wait till I tell Ren-chan...that Justin's here..." After a while, I uncovered her entire face, which smiled widely at me. What was wrong with her? She never smiled like that before!

"Hey, Kazuki-chan-" I looked up, but Kazuki-chan was asleep on the couch, snoring like a whale. How did I not notice him snoring? That was truly the bestest question ever... But, now he was asleep...I couldn't just leave and have sick Tsumi-chan all by herself...

"Justin-kun?" I looked to Tsumi-chan, guessing that Justin was now my name. "Can you get me some...water?" I nodded.

"Sure, Tsumi-chan!" I filled a glass with some tap and set it down next to her. She stared at it.

"I...can't move my arms..." She grinned at me sheepishly.

"Ah, yeah." With every muscle I had gained from tennis, I pulled up the heap of blankets and Tsumi-chan and set her-sitting-against the wall so she wouldn't choke on the water. When I was successful, I raised the glass of tap to her mouth and slowly let the water drip into her dry mouth so she didn't, like, have a bad water experience or something.

"Thanks," she smiled again once she finished, then frowned. "My heads...spinning..." I nodded and attempted to set her down without hurting her. Talk about impossible! I was almost sweating by the time she was settled down on the floor!

After a while, I thought she fell asleep so I grabbed a chair from the kitchen not too far away-about a foot from the bathroom-and set it down near Tsumi-chan so I could hear or see if anything happened to her. When all that was settled, I grabbed a blanket that was left over from Tsumi-chan and covered Kazuki-chan-he looked cold. He mumbled and smiled when I did. It made me grin!

"Hey, hey, Justin-kun," she looked at me dazed and apparently not asleep. "I'm hungry. Make ramen. I want...ramen!"

"Okay!" I nodded and three to four minutes later I came back with a steaming cup of ramen. "Tsumi-chan! I'm done!" There was no reply. I looked at the heap of blankets-which was surprisingly flat...and she was _gone! _I set down the ramen, unnerved. The door was open! I was a failure! What if she was dead? Like, like she tried to cross the street? No. No. No. No. No. No. NO!

"Justin...kun?" I sighed at the voice from behind me, extremely relieved.

"What is it?" I asked glancing over my shou-"Tsumi-chan?" She-she was only wearing a really thin tank top and underwear! W-why wasn't she wearing warmer clothes? Summer vacation just started but...she was sick!

I closed my eyes, put my hand over them as a shade and turned away.

"Um, please put some clothes on, Tsumi-chan..."

"Okay!" I heard her feet skip away and sat down, not believing what I just saw. Who knew that just-I glanced at my leather wrist watch-an hour could make me so tired! And Captain Tezuka's wasn't even there! "I'm dressed, Justin-kun!" Slowly, slowly, I turned back and saw her in a large brown coat and dark gray sweats. She twirled around and around. I laughed a little, until she stopped suddenly...and swayed...

"Oh no!" I managed to prevent her from not falling grabbing onto her arms so that she was just a little off from the ground. Then, I very gently placed her on the ground, without making her hit her head on the wall.

She grinned widely at me.

"You saved my life Justin!" Her face was reddened from the cold. Suddenly, she sat up and patted the floor next to her. "Sit with me!"

I did so, right across from her. And she...started leaning—was she gonna fall?—and she got really close to my face-and she was too fast for me to do anything about-And she. Kissed. Me.

~I~R~I~S~

"I love you Justin Timberlake!" Tsumi-chan smiled widely at me, and then her eyes suddenly shut and she hit her head on a chair leg and passed out on the floor.

I was frozen. Tsumi-chan...one of my buddies just stole my first kiss...I glanced at her happy face and for the first time, I saw her differently. Not romantically or anything but as a girl. Usually, I'd never think about people's gender but...it was weird. Tsumi-chan was a girl.

Her skin was softer, her chestnut brown hair was longer and shinier and she was short and her lips were pinker and _really soft_-I blushed so hard that I stopped thinking, stood up and walked around the apartment, eating the ramen without trying.

Why did I have to think like this? Tsumi-chan was a girl, but I shouldn't have thought of her like that! I wanted to go back to when people didn't have genders! Why did she have to kiss me? Why did I have to look like Justin Timberlake-whoever that was? Why did Kazuki have to say there was an emergency?

Dang teen angst!

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- OW! My ear started making weird sounds whenever it's silent or something is too high pitched and loud. Oh, and whoa! Is Eiji finally going through fanfic puberty?


	12. The bus, the breathing apparatuses

Iris

Salty- Ahahaha. I kept on uploading really quickly 'cause I felt like it.

Chapter 12. The bus, the breathing apparatuses and the stars

Katsumi pov-

We were going to a summer trip! WE WERE GOING TO A SUMMER TRIP!

Okay, let me explain. Summer vacation started, right and so for a couple of months we bought things for the trip-which would be at a beach for about a week-and we made sure that we had everything and had our parents sign our permission slips. For some reason, Ren's my guardian too, so I just had her sign it.

Anyway, for this trip we'd meet up at a really windy place beneath tons of tree and wait for our bus to come. What I didn't know, though, was that the cold would be so frigging cold that the cold would literally go through me and make my _teeth_ feel cold. Yeah, and I didn't have a warm enough jacket on me-I did, but I'd have to search through my suitcase-so even my bones were made of ice!

I was one of the first few people there, so it was really lonely too. No one I knew was there. There were supposed to be three buses, though, so surely more people would come. Oh, I was wrong.

After an hour and a half, everyone was almost there, except for Kawazoe-chan, who had to go to a tennis tournament somewhere in Japan and some other student. When we finally got on the bus a unified cheer screamed through the bus. My hands were turning blue, so I couldn't do the wave with everyone else. All I could do was curse quietly about my oddly colored hands.

Raki-chan sat next to me in the bus and Kikumaru-kun and Fuji-kun were in the row next to us.

Kikumaru-kun had the window seat and I had one too.

"Kikumaru-kun!" I whispered after the bus started. He just ignored me and stared off into space. I glanced out of his side of the window and saw that he was staring at the side of the cliff we were driving on. Fuji-kun seemed to be asleep...and so did Raki-chan. He had been treating me weird for a month but I had no one else to talk to!

Though I didn't full understand why he was treating me oddly, it seemed to coincide with my dream that I met Justin Timberlake when I got sick. It was weird. But, any who, I needed to talk to Kikumaru-kun again and get rid of the weirdness...but...I wasn't good at confrontations. And what if I was just imagining things? No. No. I was definitely not imagining anything. We hadn't had a decent conversation in a few weeks. There was definitely something wrong. Okay, the heck with it. Kikumaru-kun was bothering the heck out of me.

Carefully, keeping low to the floor so that the bus driver and all of the other kids didn't see me, I crept to the seat behind both Fuji-kun and Kikumaru-kun, having a sense of deja vu from class before tapping Fuji-kun's shoulder.

"Yes?" Fuji-kun turned, apparently not asleep.

"W-would you mind switching seats with me? Just for a little bit. I need to talk to Kikumaru-kun." He shrugged.

"Why not?" Like I had, he kept low to the floor and managed to climb over Raki-chan without touching her and sit down in my former seat.

As quickly as I could, without falling as the bus went over rocks, I sat in the place next to Kikumaru-kun. I sighed as I did so. And then I decided that it was now or never and tapped his shoulder.

He grumbled. I tapped him again but he didn't look back.

"What is it, Fujiko-chan?" I smiled, a bit frustrated, and tapped him again. "What is it-"

He looked at me, and froze. It looked as though he had seen a shark in his bathtub. He even backed up against the window, for what seemed like dramatic effect.

"Tsu-Tsumi-chan! What-what're you doing here?" I frowned at him.

"I'm not sure what I did to you—and I'm sorry—but I think you _may _be overreacting."

He sat back in his seat like a normal person, but looked down at his hands and not me. It was slightly infuriating.

"Y-yeah. Maybe I am." His face flushed, though I wasn't sure whether it was because he was cold or embarrassed that he overreacted. I sighed, deciding that he probably needed some warmth more, and wrapped my scarf over his neck. "Huh?" He looked at me, confused.

"You looked cold," I shrugged, and smiled. He grinned back and gave me a thumbs up. Kikumaru-kun was back!

~I~R~I~S~

Some time later the bus stopped, though most of the passengers were asleep. I was one of them.

"Tsumi-chan! We're here!" Kikumaru-kun _yelled_ and shook me awake, effectively waking everyone on the bus.

"Shut it." I growled low in my throat. He just laughed.

"But, we're _here_!" I sighed and sat up straight in my chair and looked for a window. The view was just outside of Kikumaru-kun's window.

The open window brought in the intoxicating smell of the open, blue sea. The sun was rising across the large ocean. The sand was a beautiful shining color in the sun. I woke up, somewhat, because of that.

And then I realized that I never made it back to my seat. Fuji-kun was still there, seeming to be asleep.

Oh well.

"Ne, Tsumi-chan! Whens the door gonna open! I wanna _swim!"_ Kikumaru-kun jumped up excitedly in his seat as his eyes took in the ocean with what looked like the bubbly excitement of a three year old.

"Looking forward to this, then?" asked some guy in front of us, annoyed. "Keep it to yourself, Eiji!"

"Sorry, sorry!" he laughed. I wondered how he could have possibly have been awake at that time at-I glanced at my watch-six in the morning. Had we been driving all night? "But I wanna go unpack so we can all go play!"

Was he immune to the frosting cold spreading out of the bus windows? It was twenty degrees outside!

"Dude, it's freezing outside!" I said. There was another wave of people saying shut up. I quieted myself. "Anyway, we'll be getting off soon. Be patient."

~I~R~I~S~

I was right. About twenty minutes later we were settling down in our hotels. Well, they weren't really hotels. More like four separate log cabins-huge ones-with a fire place in the back. Apparently, we would really need the fireplaces because it was _freezing _at night. We were also given groups and schedules.

The first half of the day-which was six to twelve-we were supposed to do activities like making things out of beads and learning about the history of the island that we were at. After lunch we'd get two hours to ourselves and then we'd do some marches and hiking up the nearby mountains. Then we'd have dinner and go back to our cabins for more free time before we went to bed.

We hadn't learned anything so far though since it was our first day. The first day was supposed to be used to get accustomed to the camp and finish packing. We had a whole six more days to do all that other stuff.

~I~R~I~S~

On the first day we were also encouraged to walk around and explore our camp. After packing I discovered that there were other schools there. Some were high schools. I knew this because me and Fuji walked by some older looking girls who looked at him with definite interest.

"Hey," One of the taller ones yanked my arm as he walked ahead, apparently not noticing that I was gone. "Who's the hottie? He your boyfriend or is he single?"

I didn't trust them. All of the three looked pretty shady.

"So?" asked another as the three surrounded me. "Is he single?"

"What's his name?" another asked.

"Um, his name's Saitou Akira. He's my twin." Damn. Why did I tell them about Akira?

"Oh, so is he single or not?" The tall one let go of my arm.

"No. He's dating this one girl back home." I wouldn't subject Fuji-kun to that torture.

"Oh~! Too bad!" There was sarcasm in her voice. The other two laughed. "So, this girl. Is she here? What's her name?"

"Kikumaru Tenjo," I was pretty good at making stuff up. I had to do it a lot at work. "She's my best friend. And he had to freaking fall in love with her." I added some fake bitterness. My mind was coming up with so much stuff that I internally patted myself on the back.

The girls looked at each other, shrugged and walked away. For the first time I was glad that someone had lost interest in me.

It was a good thing too. Judging from Fuji-kun's small, delicate structure, he probably couldn't take the struggle of hanging out with the three large girls.

I started laughing. Hard.

There was no one anywhere in sight so I laughed a bit longer and went back to touring around the camp. I was used to walking around alone. So I did. And it was WEIRD.

It was probably because I had friends. Maybe, somehow, I had become unused to being alone. The loneliness was kind of _sad. _How...strange.

I narrowly avoided some high school boys playing soccer near the meal time hall and decided to no longer walk and think. That stuff would get me killed some day.

My room seemed the optimal place to go after almost getting hit by those rowdy boys, so I headed in the direction I _thought _that the hotel was in. I had forgotten how bad my sense of direction was.

~I~R~I~S~

Instead of my hotel, I found myself at the edge of the beach I had seen when I first arrived. It was starting to get dark, sort of. The yellow and orange sun was setting in the distance. The first of the stars were beginning to shine in the dark sky above and behind me.

I should have left. I could have, but I didn't. The rocks...the waves gently crashing against the shores and the fatigue in my legs prevented me from leaving. It was almost as though it was asking me to stay. So I did.

Standing got boring so I tried to make a little hole in the sand for me to sit in. My shorts didn't quite give the protection I needed but it would do. Well, sort of.

For several minutes I sat and stared at the water, sort of bored. I wanted to stand but I was too tired. A part of me wanted to lie down and risk the sand getting into my hair. The heck with it...

"Tsumi-chan!" Almost like I was in the matrix, I stopped myself from falling onto the ground and sat up towards Kikuamaru-kun's voice. There he was, in jeans and a super long black t-shirt, running through the sand. I almost laughed because of the sand that flew up past him and into his mouth and eyes. He started spluttering, then collapsed in the sand, face first.

Then I did laugh. But he didn't get up.

"OMG! Eiji-kun!" I reached him through the agonizingly slow sand and tried to lift him-no luck. The next best thing was to turn him over, which was much easier. When he was turned over, he appeared to be asleep, which didn't make sense. The back of my mind was trying to remember what someone would do if someone near them had fainted.

Okay, one...check for breathing. I placed my hand over his nose...nothing. His face was turning a bit purple. Okay...not good...pulse! Yes, pulse. I put my head over his heart and checked. Definitely a strong pulse. That was good very good.

And...he was turning a bit red in the cheeks and his eyes were open...and he was laughing...Not good for him!

"Shut up!" I shouted, punching him in the arm and refusing to help him stand once I did so myself. "I was really worried." I pouted, though I didn't exactly know what a pout was.

"Sorry sorry!" he said, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile. Oh, he would so not be forgiven that easily.

"Oh yeah, take..." Backing away, I took up a fighting a stance and...three...two...one..."this!" I charged as best as I could in the sand and ended up elbowing him down in the ribs as he finally stood up. Somehow, I ended up _lying_, not sitting nor standing, _lying_ on him like in some sort of cheesy, romantic manga. As quick as the human body allowed-which was surprisingly fast-I managed to roll of and lay in the sand next to him. "Hope you enjoyed _that!" _I smiled to myself as he groaned while rubbing his stomach.

"Honestly, no...But I'm used to it..." I pondered on the statement for a moment, but just a moment. "You're violent, Tsumi-chan."

I stared at the sky, which was then all dark blue with stars dotting here and there, and thought about how to answer the statement.

"Well, you really scared me. _You weren't breathing_."

"Mm...But then you wouldn't have made that funny face, Tsumi-chan!" Fuming, I decided that it was best for Kikumaru-kun's life that I didn't respond. "Hey, did you call me 'Eiji-kun'...when I fell?"

I thought back to it and shrugged. A bit of the sand enveloped the bottom portion of my ear.

"Maybe." Had I? "I dunno. It seems fair though." What did that even mean?

"Fair?"

"Yeah, like...You call me Tsumi-chan. That's my first name, sort of, so I should be able to call you by a nickname." Whoa...flashback to the three tall girls that were trying to seduce Fuji-kun...I was saying stuff that I didn't mean to!

A few more moments of silence came before he agreed, quite happily. The silence lasted longer.

"Did you know that these three high school girls from the camp were trying to seduce Fuji-kun?"

"_What? _If there's three, how are they gonna be in a relationship?"

I thought about it and blanched.

"Ew...I think I might know...Poor, poor Fuji-kun..."

"What? What were they trying to do?" I just couldn't ruin his innocence. Gah, what was another topic that I could talk about...?

"Did you know that I have a twin?" No! Why did I have to talk about Akira again? "His name was Saitou Akira. He died...when I was seven."

Eiji-kun was silent. Anyone who heard that probably would be.

"For a long time, I had an imaginary friend. I called him Akira, sometimes Kira-chan. Mom thought that I saw his spirit." I laughed a little. "A bit after he died, Mom and Dad adopted Kazuma. I didn't like him at first but...I adjusted. Then my little sister, Rika, was born. But the gap wasn't really filled. I...still remember Akira. He's-He _was _really cool. A bit shy. Really quiet. He was a lot like me, actually. I used to be really bubbly but he sort of took over my personality. So, he was never really gone." I paused to breath and realized how much I just said to Eiji-kun, who I'd only known for a couple of months. "Whoa. I must've said a mouthful, huh?"

The sand next to me shifted-it sounded like he was shaking his head.

"Nah, it's good that you trust me enough to tell me this stuff, right? It means that we're friends!"

I smiled.

"Yeah-"

"Ooh! LOOK! LOOK! IN THE SKY! IT'S A MOVING-A SHOOTING STAR!"

"OMG!" In the sky, among the bright stars and dark blue sky was a solitary moving star-a shooting star! Whoa!

After the stars came down and vanished, I was struck with a thought. Had me and Eiji-kun have possibly gotten closer? OMG!


	13. Tsumi Doo, where are you!

Iris

Salty- So~...Awkwardness, right? Hm...Angels are cool...Did seven really devour nine? We shall see...Not! *Runs away giggling like a crazy child.

(Unlucky)Chapter 13. Tsumi Doo, Where Are You?

That night I returned to my cabin with the help of Eiji-kun. Both of us were giggling merrily, since we were very late for bed time and we kept tripping over the sand.

I wasn't sure that it would be comfortable after my depressing story about Akira but it was! After we got to the girl's cabin/hotel he departed and I creeped into my bed as quickly as possible.

The giggles still remained in my throat.

"Oi! Shut up already! Some of us are trying to get some beauty sleep!"  
"You're waking us up more than the giggles, Suzuyama-san!"

"Whatever!"

"You're the only who needs the beauty sleep, Suzuyama!"

There was a round of giggles from those who were awake. I was one of them. I couldn't believe that I was being defended!

"Hey, Saitou-chan..." I turned over to my stomach and looked at the girl whose top bunk was next to mine. "Where were you? You must've had a lot of fun to have been giggling that hard, huh?"

The beginning of a sadistic smile crept upon what part of her face that I could see in the incredibly dim room.

"Yeah, you could say that." I swiveled 360 degrees so that my feet were in the girl's face and my head was at the window. Which was a bit annoying.

The bitter cold nipped at my nose and the dark blue fabric curtain whipped my eyes. I was closer to the ocean than ever and I could hear the waves crash against the rocks and shore with endless power. But, outside I saw something...something scary...a ghost!

~I~R~I~S~

She was tall, very tall. Her ragged, stained white dress billowed in the cold breeze as she walked on the rocky beach-not the same one as when I was with Eiji-kun. Her black, unkempt hair shone in the moon light like millions of sown together black pearls. I couldn't see her face, and that was what perhaps intrigued me the most.

~I~R~I~S~

Without thinking, I lept out of my bed about seven or eight feet down-I was on a top bunk-and hurriedly opened and ran out of the door. My first instinct was to jump the ghost and make it tell everyone in the whole wide world that she was real.

But, after running behind a mountain where I saw it turn, I realized that it was gone. I would have to keep on searching then!

~I~R~I~S~

Eiji's POV-

The next morning, I woke up totally refreshed and recharged! Having tons of fun with my friends seemed to do that sometimes. Plus, I was happy that my shy little buddy opened up!

When I was fully, fully awake, I started to look around the weird cabin-hotel-Abe Lincoln house thingy and saw that I was the only one there. But, it was really loud outside. Without a moments thought I got up and exited to the bright, sunny outside. People from all over were scurrying worriedly. Lots of people were cursing and some of the councilors from my year were jumping around.

One came near me, so I took the opportunity to grab his arm.

"What's wrong, Mr. Hinato?" He looked around worriedly and started jumping up and down.

"No time to explain-it's really important! One of your classmates has disappeared!" A small pit grew in my stomach, and it felt like I knew who was missing before he said it. "Her name's Saitou Katsumi!" I released his arm before realizing it and he scurried off.

"All students report to the lunch hall!" The large P.A. System announced from a pole. "Several students have gone missing and so counting must be conducted!"

I went to the lunch hall with the large crowd and hoped that Tsumi-chan was there. Really, really hoped.

But she wasn't. I looked all around the entire lunch hall where three school groups were held. There was no sign of Tsumi-chan among the Seigaku group. Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

"Eiji..." Fujiko muttered as he stood next to me in the group. We had already been counted so it was some people were moving about freely. "Saitou-chan's missing...Did you know?"

I nodded.

"A teacher told me earlier..." I whispered.

"What? She's gone?" Muttered Raki-chan, not too far away. Both of us nodded.

"I've heard some rumors about the cabin that that middle schooler disappeared around..." Muttered a high school boy nearby us to some other students.

"I think I've heard them too...about Nana the Strangler, right?" Strangler?

All of us-me, Fujiko and Raki-chan-turned silent so that we could hear the high schoolers.

"Yeah. That girl that murdered everyone at that cabin."

"I heard that she went insane, strangled all of the girls in that cabin and ran off into those rocky hills near that girl's cabin."

"Some people from last year's trip said that a middle school saw the ghost of the murderer and followed her up into the hills. She came back the next and couldn't speak for a year. When she did talk, she told some of her friends that the ghost tried to kill her. I heard from Yukari from Kitameru-the school the girl was at-that she's dead now..."

Both me and Raki-chan gulped, but Fujiko remained calm. He frowned at the very least and furrowed his eyebrows.

"This doesn't make sense..." he muttered. "Ghosts obviously don't exist..."

Both me and Raki-chan ignored him.

"I hope...I hope that she escapes from Mitaro-san..." I looked to her in silent questioning.

"I've heard the story before. Mitaro Nana was sent to a school field trip after her sisters both died of some illness. She was devastated but went anyway. Mitaro-san was bullied a lot over here too, and she went insane and killed all of the girls that bullied her-which was all of the girl's in her cabin. I heard from some people that somebody did a test of courage in the hills where she disappeared and they called out to Mitaro-san's ghost. A couple of people survived but the person that called out...was found brutally hacked up there...and here...and in the forest...and in the water."

I shivered, and nearly blanched at the thought of Tsumi-chan scattered all over the place.

Fujiko was shaking his head.

"I might believe the murder part but things that are dead can't be brought back to life."

"First of all, people whose heart's stop come back sometimes, and second, how do we know that Mitaro-san didn't just stay in the mountains and come down to abduct and murder the first helpless student she found?"

My stomach jolted.

"Counting complete!" called some guy, whose skin was visibly paling. "Four students from Seishun academy and Tomase academy are missing. Their names are Saitou Katsumi, Endou Ruki, Ichiyoru Amaya and Akitari Toru."

Shivers ran down my spine. That confirmed it. Tsumi-chan...Tsumi-chan was missing!

"We've gotta find her," Raki-chan whispered to us, officially joining our little circle. "We have to."

"Yeah, definitely." We looked to Fujiko, who would definitely object. He looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding.

"Un. I agree." We all nodded and agreed to go during lunch and try to see if we could find her near the cabins. Hopefully alive.

"I'm going too!" said some random girl whose hair was impossibly pink. "I saw Saitou-san leaving but I didn't do anything about it...I thought she would come back...My name's Kondou Izumi, by the way."

Though Raki-chan was mad at the girl, we decided to let her into the group. Our operation to search would begin in six hours, and then...we would find Tsumi-chan.

~I~R~I~S~

After we packed our lunches into small bags, we carefully slipped out of the lunch hall. There were some high school girls playing soccer outside, so we did our best to seem casual as we walked to the girl's cabin area.

Boys weren't allowed there so we split into two groups; one with girls and the other with us boys.

"Since we will be splitting up and most likely will as we enter the forest, the girls will go on by themselves to the right hill. We will go to the left hill," Fuji explained. We all nodded in agreement.

Raki-chan and Condor-san went off towards the girl's camp while we traveled around it and behind the councilor's cabins. Very quickly, we began to approach the looming flower filled hills. In between was a small pass.

"Don't bother with it," said Fujiko with his eyes glued to the top of the hill. "According to maps, it's just a dead end."

There was that word. Dead.

"Well, maybe she's in there?" I didn't mean it to sound like a question, but it did. Fujiko shook his head.

"If she were in there, she'd have no reason not to come out." Dang Fujiko and his logic.

"Okay..." We started up the mountain. By the time we got half way up, we hadn't found a single sign that Tsumi-chan had been there.

"I hope the girls are having better luck..." Fujiko murmured. Then, his eyes opened and lit up. "Look!"

On the dirt some twenty feet away was a small, solitary human figure. _Tsumi-chan!_

"Tsumi-chan!"

"Saitou-chan!"

We ran up into the hills, and like we had guessed, there she was-lying under her jacket and snoozing peacefully, as though we hadn't worried a river or something!

"Eiji, take her back to camp and alert the councilors that we've got her. I'll get the girls."

"Okay!" With an effort, I pulled her over my shoulder and started down the hill while attempting to not drop Tsumi-chan. It was difficult, but I managed to get down to the councilor's office in one piece.

"Mm..." Tsumi-chan groaned, but I didn't bother to check. Instead, I placed her down on the ground and knocked on the councilor's door, keeping an eye on Tsumi-chan.

"What is it?" the gruff voice of some random person called. "I'm not paying for that pizza! We have missing campers on our hands!"

My knocking became more frantic and increased until I saw the councilor peek through the screen door. He then opened it when he saw me and raised an eyebrow at Tsumi-chan.

"What is it?" he asked, sounding intrigued.

"Me and my friends found one of the missing campers, Saitou Katsumi." His eyes popped open and a thin smile was on his mouth for a fraction of a second.

"That's good. That's really good. Any chance you found the others?" I shook my head and he frowned at me, as though it was my fault that they were missing. "Not good. Well, do you know what happened."

"Sorry sir." His frown grew in width and seemed to spread to the creases in his forehead.

"At least we found that one," he grunted. Then he looked up to me. "Take care of her until she wakes up. Bring her to the infirmary, first. Find out why she was gone." I nodded. "I'll call the nurse's assistants to help you. On the double man!" He nodded to me, curtly, and saluted me. I nodded back and sat next to Tsumi-chan where she was on the floor. The tall man retreated back into his house where I heard him calling for the nurse people to help.

I glanced at Tsumi-chan's sleeping, not dead face and sighed in relief. Thank God and the angels we had found her!

~I~R~I~S~

Several hours later, Saitou stirred awake and saw a sleeping Kikumaru sitting on the chair next to her bed. It took a few seconds for her to grow alert.

"Ji-kun! Ji-kun!" She tugged at his jacket sleeve and then punched him softly in the stomach. "Wake up!" His eyes opened slowly and then widened when he saw Saitou.

"Y-you're awake!" he gasped, the started coughing.

"Ji-kun, you have to listen. Three high school people, a girl and two boys, they-they fell down a hill. And they're stuck...I tried to get them but-but I passed out!"

_To be continued!_

~I~R~I~S~

Whoop-whoop! D-R-A-M-A and a mystery! Okay, I'm aware that this chapter sucks but they will get better!


	14. An Unexpected End

Iris

Salty- Boop. Touch your screen to activate the next chapter of Iris. You don't have to, really. I'm just a bit bored, ya know?

Chapter 14. An Unexpected End

Katsumi pov-

Together me and Eiji-kun ran towards the hills, which were rather far from the nurse's office but we had no time to spare. Apparently, while I was missing Eiji-kun, Fuji-kun, Raki-chan and some girl went looking for me and the campers, but they hadn't come back. It had been hours since Eiji-kun found me.

It didn't look good, obviously. We reached the hills and began running up the one that Eiji-kun said that the group had gone. My mind dreaded what we might or might not have found.

But all of my thoughts died when I caught sight of Raki-chan and Fuji-kun.

"Thank the Angels that you're all alright," I wheezed, quite tired from the long trek up the steep hill. "But..." Both of them were stuck rather deep in one of the many large, wiry hedges on top of the hill. "Where's the other girl? Kondou Izumi-san, right?"

"I think..." Raki-chan looked unsure. "She ran off. I didn't see when she did. Kind of preoccupied with..." she nodded towards the large hedge. "Oh, and we're happy that you were found." She seemed to have forgotten about me.

"Hm..." Fuji-kun hummed. "I may have solved a part of the mystery." In that moment, he managed to pull himself free of the bush.

"Then tell us!" we all said, almost at once. He shook his head in response.

"I want to solve the whole thing before telling everyone. It feels more suspenseful that way."

Ji-kun groaned and Raki-chan stuck her tongue out at him.

"Any chance you saw Nana the strangler? Or found the lost campers?" I was anxious. Three people were in our hands and the others were acting like children.

"Ah, yes. We've found them. There stuck in that small hole over there," he nodded to hole not to far away. It was maybe eight or so feet deep but about ten feet wide. "We managed to get them out but somehow got stuck ourselves." He nodded at the large bush where Raki-chan had just managed to get unstuck.

"They said that they were following a creepy ghost girl like the legend. Apparently, the creeps were heading off to the camp on the other side of the hill to follow it," said Raki-chan, disgusted. "I mean, it's really not right. Ghost stalking."

Fuji-kun laughed. Ji-kun agreed with zest. I couldn't believe that I'd just been having a panic attack.

"This is _so_ weird," I groaned. A nap seemed very good at the moment. "I'm going back to my cabin. I'm tired."

"Nope," Fuji-kun grabbed my arm. Not hard, though, but the touch made me blush. "We've still got a mystery to solve." He spun me around, so that I had to face him. He was smiling down at me, and it was creepy. Something in my mind screamed at me to turn away.

"Whatever," I shrugged off his arm. Discretely. I hoped that he didn't notice that I did it purposely. "I'm still tired. Wrap this up quickly, please." Yeah, I know. I sounded like Raki-chan. But, hey, I wasn't a morning person. Well...the sun was setting in a purplish pink at the moment, but I had just woken up and had the burden of missing campers on my shoulders, sort of.

Fuji-kun raised an eyebrow at my comment but said nothing else. It was a bit scary.

"Well..." started Raki-chan. "Off we go?" I sighed and we all started down the hill and played follow the leader with Fuji-kun(you can guess who was the leader.) He left us outside of one of the councilor's cabins for a couple of minutes before coming out with an agitated looking male that I hadn't seen before.

"This better be good," the male, not much older than us, mumbled. Together, we walked through the enclosed O-shaped array log cabins that were the girl's cabins. We walked through them-which weirded me out, since we were with boys and that usually allowed.

"Saitou-chan," Fuji-kun turned to me, his smile a little wider than usual. "Which way to your cabin?"

We walked to the other end of the small, grassy field and I pointed to the most used-looking cabin.

"That one," I said. "Why?" Fuji-kun smiled.

"Come in and see." It was dinner time, so no one was in there. At least no one was _supposed_ to be there, but packing on the floor was Kondou-san-a girl with blue eyes and impossibly pink hair. All of her stuff was nearly inside of a pink suit case that matched her hot pink hair.

"Ah-ah," she spotted us. "I was...My mom called and-"

"I don't mean to be rude, but save it," said Fuji-kun, and I thought I heard something cold within his voice.

"It still sounds rude," whispered Eiji-kun.

"I know," Fuji-kun smiled. "But a thief doesn't deserve much kindness, right?"

"Thief?" exclaimed the councilor. "So that's the person whose been stealing our supplies!"

"Yeah," Fuji-kun nodded. "Kondou-san's been stealing and giving our supplies to the camp over the hill. In fact, her name isn't even Kondou Izumi, is it?" he spun around from us and to the pink-ette.

She had a face mixed with horror and bitterness. Then acceptance.

"Fine, whatever. I'm Kawaguchi Sawako. You've caught me," she took out a couple of tennis rackets from her bag. "Just take your stupid stuff."

The councilor scooped up the tennis rackets in one arm and took Kawaguchi-san's wrist in the other.

"Thanks kids," he winked at us and then left.

"Was that it?" asked Raki-chan after some time. "_That _was the whole plot line after Saitou disappeared? That was the worst mystery ever!" We all agreed.

"I thought it was okay," Fuji-kun admitted.

"That's 'cause you were the head detective, Fuji-kun," I said. We all started laughing.

You probably think that this was the last of this part. You'd be wrong.

~I~R~I~S~

The next day, we were all walking around as normal. All of the campers, including me, were back. Nobody found out that me, Fuji-kun, Raki-chan and Eiji-kun were the ones that found the campers, so we were just some random, unnamed heroes. Yeah, that kind of sucked.

The next day, at breakfast, I realized something unusual. Eiji-kun was sitting with a bunch of other boys that looked really sporty, and so was Fuji-kun. Raki-chan was sitting and frowning with some girls that I didn't know. I wasn't sure who to sit with. Usual, they'd be sitting together. This hadn't happened before. A part of me wanted to go with the majority, Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun, but then I'd be abandoning Raki-chan. Maybe I should have gone with neither to be neutral. I was so confused.

"Oi, Saitou-san!" I looked around, and found a girl with short medium brown hair under an orange cap waving me over to a table with a bunch of other girls. "Come join us!" I was so confused at the time that I scampered-yes, scampered-over to them. I sat in between two very tall girls.

It was about then that I realized that all of the girls were wearing very nice, trendy clothes and had very popular hairstyles. Likewise, they all looked very popular. The girl who called me over was short, especially compared to the freaking giants around her, but looked completely confident and comfortable. It seemed as though she owned the lunch hall.

"Hello, Saitou-chan!" She giggled, as did the other girls. To others it may have been cute but it creeped me out for some reason. "Welcome to our little table."

"It's not that little," I blurted. "It's got like, what, twenty girls?" They started giggling again, but it seemed sort of forced.

"Oh, you know what I meant," the girl that called me over swatted around her hand, as though to rid herself of laughter.

"You're funny!" said one girl.

"Any who," said the main girl. "I am Suzuyama Kei. You may call me Kei, if you wish." Wait, had I heard that name before? "We, as friends of Kikumaru-"

"Wait," I interrupted. "You're fan girls?" Some laughed and some gave me appalled looks.

"No no no, you have us completely wrong, Saitou-chan!" exclaimed Kei-chan. She was one of the ones who looked shocked and disturbed. "We are not like fan girls in the least! We really _are_ friends of his."

I wasn't sure whether to believe her or not. Her face seemed honest enough. Then I looked at her. Kei-chan's emerald green eyes were looking at me with unwavering sincerity, so I figured that she was telling the truth.

"Okay," I shrugged.

"Good," she smiled. "Now then, where were we?"

"Introductions," said the tall girl next to her.

"Ah," she clapped her hands. "Yes, of course. As friends of Kikumaru, we have matters to discuss with you." Her face, as well as the faces of the other girls, turned completely and hilariously serious. For a half of a second, I thought that I was about to be assassinated. "Are you, or are you not..." I tried to look as serious as possible. "trying to go out with Kikumaru Eiji?"

I couldn't help it. It just burst. I spit a little bit and started busting out in some of the most hardiest laughter that I'd ever felt.

"No way!" Kei-chan looked relieved.

"I'm glad to hear it! We were worried for the sake of another broken heart." A part of me was offended, but I tried to ignore it.

"So, why'd you think I liked Eiji-kun?" Kei-chan's eyes hardened.

"_'Eiji-kun'_?" She spat the words like acid. "Why are you calling him that? You've only known him for, what, three months?"

I shrugged.

"I dunno. He started calling me Tsumi-chan after he met Ren-chan-"

"Who's Ren-chan?" asked a curious girl. I thought I sensed some sort of under tone to her voice but I wasn't sure.

"My neighbor."

"Why'd he meet your neighbor?" asked another girl.

"Oh, he was at my apartment for a school project. He accidentally walked into her room," Now that I'd thought about it, he'd never told anyone about my retainer. I probably should have thanked him.

"Was it just you two," asked a girl, almost angrily.

"No, no. There was Fuji-kun too-"

"Fuji _Syusuke?_" One girl shrieked. "Fuji Syusuke was at your house?"

"Not house, apartment," I corrected. "And Murasaki Tenjo was there too." For some reason, I thought that Raki-chan would get mad if I'd ever called her Raki-chan.

Kei-chan stared at me, as though I was some odd bug.

"How on Earth did you get the most popular people in class 3-5 to your house?" I was a bit taken a back by the question.

"They're the most popular?" I knew they were popular, but I didn't know that they were _that _popular.

"Yes," she sighed, head in her arms on the table. "Oh God, you're getting frustrating..." Something had shown out of her that confirmed my earlier thoughts. They _were_ some sort of Eiji-kun fan club!

"Maybe I am," I smirked. Or tried to. What exactly _was_ smirking? "And I'm still not sure that you're _not _a fan club."

Another girl smashed her fists on the table, narrowly avoiding her lunch.

"Don't compare us to those clingy brats!" A lot of the time, people would get scared at this point. But I wasn't. I wasn't sure why, but I wanted to argue _more. _It was strange but extremely gratifying. "We don't stalk and we don't cheer for him or anything like that!"

All of the girls were staring at me, glowering down at the girl who lived. (Why was I comparing myself to Harry Potter.)

"I do, though. I don't know about _stalking_ but as a _friend,_ cheering is something that you've gotta do, right? Encouraging and all that."

Kei-chan looked up and her nostrils flared in a not so cute way.

"I see your point, _Saitou-chan," _The way she said my name was not as friendly. "But, whatever. As long as your not dating Kikumaru, we're good."

"Who said I wasn't?" It came out before I could stop myself.

They glowered down at me with more ferocity, though some looked at me in curiosity.

"I thought that we confirmed that you were not dating him," said Kei-chan.

"We agreed that I had no intentions of dating him. Not that I wasn't already."

Kei-chan snarled.

"It's seems that we've made a new enemy, girls," said Kei-chan to everyone without taking her eyes off of me. The eyes that I had thought were honest and beautiful at first.

And the weird thing was, all I could think about was Eiji-kun and how I didn't really feel anything towards him. And one more thing. I'd made my first enemy!

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Omg. I'm so _sorry!_ I started procrastinating because I didn't want to finish this chapter but then I realized that it'd been over a month! So so so so so so so so so so so so sorry!


	15. A bit of Hysteria and Heartbreak

Iris

Salty- To make up for my insolence, I started this chapter almost immediately. I'll try to edit this time! 3 And, oh gosh. It's been a while, but you should know that I gave up updating fan fiction for lent. My insolence! By the way, if anyone notices that Katsumi had a huge obsession with American pop culture...then...oh, hey, let's start the story!

Chapter 15. A bit of hysteria and heartbreak

The whole trip to the mountains passed by really quickly. Like, seriously, all I could remember about it was that Suzuyama Kei wanted me dead because she was a _HUGE_ fan girl, that Fuji-kun solved a lame mystery and that Eiji-kun was now calling me Tsumi-chan. Pretty soon, we were driven back to the bus station and went home. Eiji-kun, Fuji-kun and Raki-chan lived near the bus station, so I was the only one who had to take a train back.

"Bye you guys," I waved to them. They waved back before turning to walk to a burger place.

"Ooh!" Raki-chan suddenly stopped and ran back to me. She then dug into her pocket and brought out an adorable turquoise cellphone. "What's your number?" she asked. "I wanna keep in touch during the summer."

"A-ah! Yeah..." I felt so...accepted and happy! My hand shook as I brought my cell phone out of my pocket and exchanged numbers with Raki-chan. "T-there you go!" A couple of tears came down my cheeks.

"Tsumi-chan!" exclaimed Eiji-kun as he and Fuji-kun ran over.

"What's wrong, Saitou-chan?" asked Fuji-kun. I felt a little bad that I made them worry, but noticed that I felt less guilty towards Fuji-kun.

"D-did I do something?" asked Raki-chan, starting to tear up a little herself.

"Why are _you_ crying?" asked Fuji-kun to Raki-chan, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a sympathetic crier!" Raki-chan exclaimed.

"Sorry. I-I've never had friends as good as you guys before," I said, choking up a bit. And then I was bombarded by something incredibly heavy and red furred(or something.) It was Eiji-kun hugging me.

"Group hug or something!" said Fuji-kun. He hugged Raki-chan instead. And then I understood something I should have understood quite long before. Maybe it was the sudden combined heat temperature of Eiji-kun's hug and my natural body temperature, but my mind suddenly felt a little clearer. Eiji-kun eventually got off of me after Raki-chan's surprisingly powerful tug. We all shared phone numbers.

"Promise to stay in touch, everyone?" asked Eiji-kun. He looked to each of us seriously. Fuji-kun, Raki-chan and me all nodded, though I had a difficult time not laughing. It was surprising to see all of them so serious. But it meant that they actually liked me. They wanted to stay in touch with me. I'd felt more accepted than I had in probably ever.

~I~R~I~S~

We didn't talk much over the next month. I watched a ton of Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun's team's games over the summer. They won all of the ones I went to, though I wasn't sure about the ones that I didn't get to see. Then, like it was meant to be, I had to go to work right after their games so I couldn't talk to them.

At home, Kazuma was finding friends at his cafe job and in school, so he started hanging out with them. I was left alone at home, like I'd reverted back to my schedule without friends or family(aka Kazuma.)

Then came the festival at the end of summer.

~I~R~I~S~

When it came to that day, I found myself in freaking hysteria.

"Oh God? WHAT AM I GONNA WEAR? CRAP! THIS IS BAD! SO SO SO SO SO BAD! I HAVEN'T SEEN THEM IN A WHILE, WHAT IF THEY'VE FORGOT ME? THIS IS BAD!"

"SHUT THE EFFING JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE HELL UP, SAITOU KATSUMI!" cried a horse old lady from next to my room. But then I remembered that there was no old lady living next to my/in my apartment. I lived at the edge of the second floor, so to my left was Ren-chan and on the right was just a wall. Next to my room was Kazuma's room, and he had been infected with an awful disease which made me take care of him and feed him and stuff. It was called the common cold.

Normally that wouldn't be such a big problem, but in my family, if you get the cold you tend to become delirious and unable to take care of yourself. It had to do with us having high blood pressure or something. People say that I've gotten it but I usually couldn't remember a thing afterwards. Sometimes, after my colds, I wonder what I had done. If I was anything like Kazuma, then certainly a lot of damage, mentally and physically.

Quickly, I changed into the best clothes I could attain when worried. The reason for such was the fear that Kazuma had escaped his bondage. You see, whenever either of us had colds, we tended to rampage or make trouble in some way, or lose friends after making them uncomfortable(Kazuma once punched someone in the face because he thought that they were Hannah Montana and wouldn't kiss him)so we had made a pact several years before that we would tie up one another in blankets.

If Kazuma had escaped before Ren-the only one who could command us when we were sick and rampaging-had arrived, the end of the world would come early. So I waited on the couch in the living room, looking down at the floor at my little brother's face-the only thing I could see through the blankets. He looked like a fat butterfly cocoon. And, like Akira. Akira was my twin brother. He died when he was seven when he got sick.

Kazuma looked just like him, but with lighter hair. It was a bit unnerving, really. And sad. Not wanting to deal with old memories that I'd gotten rid of when I was ten(with lots of therapy) I looked down at my clothes. My shirt was a baby blue strappy top and I wore a frilly white skirt that went about to my knees. My shoes were regular tennis shoes and my socks were white and blah blah blah. I'd yet to do my hair.

"I'm here!" I looked up and saw Ren-chan open the front door. She was dressed in her regular uniform-a white t-shirt, jeans, a yellow apron with a chicken on it and a yellow cap that said 'Best Chicken in Japan!' "Has he woken up yet?" she asked. I realized that her hair was in a bun that day.

"No, not yet." I looked at her. She looked at me. Several seconds of awkwardness passed by. I hadn't talked to her for months. Either her crazy schedule or job or some other thing had been preventing me from seeing her. "I think...I'll be going then,"

She nodded and I stood up.

"Your aura's changed," Ren-chan said suddenly. "A lot. It used to be all gray and dark. Now it's a lot lighter."

"Yeah," I said. Though I had no idea how to actually respond.

"Has something really good happened? It's like, your in love?" I thought about it. In love? I loved my friends but that was just about it. I didn't know any boys well enough to be in love-except for Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun-and I was straight. Unless I was in love with Kazuma. But that was incest and just plain wrong. Hadn't I thought about that earlier?

"Crazy...confused chicken lady..." mumbled Kazuma. I took that as my sign to go.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours." I grabbed my purse, keys and umbrella in one scoop and hurried out of the apartment while putting on my trench coat. I then boarded a train and sat impatiently, waiting till I reached my friends and wondering whether they still wanted to see me and whether I still wanted to see them. "And I'm not in love!"

~I~R~I~S~

After about an hour or two, I reached the temple where the end of summer festival would be taking place. It was not yet night time, so none of the hanging Chinese lanterns had been lit. Still, the place was bustling with people trying to enter the temple and from the people already in playing games and buying things at booths set up just about everywhere, which varied in size. Some booths were about the size of a small closet while others were the size of a Hannah Montana concert. One, in particular, looked like an amphitheater.

My friends had agreed to meet at the Fuji family's booth, which was a fortune telling booth titled 'Fuji Yumiko's Impressions'. After some time of searching I found it near the entrance(for once, the angels had served me well in my direction-less-ness!) Not many people were around it. On the outside, it looked like a fortune teller's tent. On the inside, it was. Purple draperies were lined up around the room. Strange signs and sayings were painted on white pieces of paper taped around the room. In the middle was a woman that I at first thought was Fuji, but then I saw that she was older, had longer hair and was a female.

"Welcome," she smiled at me mysteriously then gazed at the crystal ball in front of her, stroking the air around it and swishing the hems of her purple robes against the table. "You are...Saitou-chan, yes? You are...looking for Syusuke?" She looked up and smiled at my look of shock.

"W-well, yeah. Actually, yeah. Wow. You really are psychic."

"It's not that I'm psychic," she said. "but the universe chooses to tell it's secrets to a select few. I am merely one of them. And Syusuke told me that you were going to be looking for him. They're back there." She pointed behind her, to where a room seemed to be behind several white curtains. I started walking, but she barred my way with her arm. "Do not be mislead by what you see today. You shall be disappointed but don't give up hope, Saitou-chan."

I noticed that she sounded oddly like Ren-chan when she was in one of her trances. Her arms went down and she looked shocked at her actions.

"Oh my, I'm sorry." She smiled at me. I could think of nothing to do so I nodded at her.

"It's okay. Just another message from the cosmos, right?" She nodded with a closed eyed look that mirrored Fuji-kun's exactly.

"Exactly, Saitou-chan." We shared a smile that made me feel more grown up than I was before she turned away from me. I walked behind the curtains and vaguely remembered a scene from the Wizard of Oz.

Inside of the room, Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun were playing a card game while Raki-chan was balancing on one hand on a wooden box in a kimono. She was the only one to look up as I walked in.

"Hey," she groaned with the effort. "Saitou!" In one swift movement, she did a back flip and landed on her feet about a foot away from me. "Not bad, eh?"

Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun looked up from their game but looked like they had no intentions of putting their cards down.

"Hey, Tsumi-chan!" Eiji-kun waved his free hand.

"Hello, Saitou-chan," with his usual calm demeanor, Fuji-kun smiled then went back to his game with Eiji-kun.

"I wouldn't bother to be mad," said Raki-chan. "They've been playing that game since six in the morning."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah, I suppose it's one of those dumb boy things," she grimaced in their direction. "But a _gentleman _would puthis cards _down_ and escort a lady through the fair. I think Saitou would enjoy it."

Both Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun sighed and stood. Both of them were wearing jeans and t-shirts. Neither of them had done anything special with their hair.

"We'll escort you two then," said Fuji-kun, smiling like he had already been thinking of this idea. I could tell he still wanted to play, though. Eiji-kun too.

"Well, you don't have to..." I said. Fuji-kun answered with a smile and hooked his arm with mine.

"I insist." He smiled, and for once I thought he was a little less annoying.

"Okay then." Eiji-kun and Raki-chan hooked arms as well. Then, in twos, we walked out of the tent while waving goodbye to Yumiko-san. She made me promise to take care of Fuji-kun and shared a very serious look with me, like we knew something that no one else knew. But I didn't. At all.

Outside of the tent, we saw a large crowd in front of some concert hall.

"Okay, let's go!" said Raki-chan. "If we split up, we'll meet at the fireworks hall in three hours." We all agreed.

~I~R~I~S~

Sure enough, we were separated in the large crowd. I was with Raki-chan, which was a little uncomfortable because we had never been alone together, really. Where were Eiji-kun and Fuji-kun?

"Ugh," Raki-chan leaned against a tree while I attempted to escape the rush of the crowd. We had somehow gotten to the far end of the festivities, the part near the trees and away from the banners, the lanterns and the shops. The sun had long since gone down. We were likely about to be filmed for some ax murderer horror movie scene."Where'd those two go? _It's getting dark_."

"You sound like one of the horror movie heroines," I said. She grinned at me.

"I sort of feel like one right now..." She stared up at the moon and gave a loud, dog-like howl. "I'd give anything to be a wild dog right now."

"That's a bit weird," I lifted an amused/weirded out eyebrow involuntarily. She shrugged.

"I get a bit weird sometimes. The entire earths a bit weird, really," she smiled. "at night, especially."

"Correction. _You are_ weird."

Raki-chan giggled. "More or less."

"I don't think I've ever seen you like this."

She looked at me. In the light of the one Chinese lantern, I noticed her light makeup and her dark blue kimono decorated with a falling hot cherry blossom design and a matching pink sash across her waist. And for some reason I remembered what had happened after we got back from our field trip. What I had seen between Raki-chan and Fuji-kun, I mean.

"Hey..." my voice came out quieter than I meant it to. I wondered how to phrase my question without possibly giving Raki-chan the wrong idea or something. "Are you and Fuji-kun..." 'Breath, dang it! Breath! "Dating?"

Raki-chan stared at me. She looked surprised but I couldn't read anything else in her expression. Was I right? Was I wrong? Was she angry, happy or depressed? Could she have been jealous? Why wasn't she answering?

Then she started laughing as though the prime minister of japan had fallen into a rather large pit of lard-oddly descriptive, I know.

"N-no!" She clutched her stomach, tugging on the sash, and her recently cut, short black hair covered her face. When she finally looked up minutes later, I could tell that I was wrong. "What'd make you think that? Me and _Fuji_?" Raki-chan stopped laughing and looked at me thoughtfully. Her gaze made me nervous. "Why? Do you wanna go out with him? I could give him a good recommendation or something?" And she had the wrong idea.

"Ew," I shook my hair and frowned as I felt the bun in the back of my head come loose. "No. I just thought I saw something."

She looked thoughtful again and leaned against a tree.

"He used to-back when we were first years. But he doesn't any more. I can tell," she shrugged. "Besides, I like Tezuka now." I immediately dismissed the thought of a relationship out of my head. But still...I saw the way he looked at her. Something careful and tender, like he was afraid she would break. "So, yeah, and I heard that he liked some freshman." I didn't believe it. Not at all.

"Wanna go on that water ride we passed?"

"Heck yeah! I've been dying to go slide-surfing from a fifty foot slide with on coming rapids for a while!"

"Not that one..."

~I~R~I~S~

Three hours later, an exhausted pair of drenched girls were walking back towards the center of the festival. Both had broken the record for most rides down the Rapid Drive, a fifty foot slide with oncoming rapids on which you had to slide/surf down. One had a towel around the waist due to their drenched white skirt. Three guesses who.

"Oh god, that was fun!" yelled Raki-chan, although my stomach was still whirling. "We have to do that after the fireworks."

"I'm fine-" Something warm threaten to come out of my throat and I coughed it down. "Thanks..."

"Sucks about your skirt though. The guy who collected our surf boards was blushing like crazy. He was kinda cute, wasn't he?"

"Uh, yeah...I thought you liked Tezuka?"

"Don't change the subject-and yes, I do like Tezuka, but single girls are still allowed to oggle hot guys, aren't they?"

"Oh god, I don't even know you today."

"Come one, like you've never checked out a hot guy."

I thought about it.

"Define 'checked out'," I said. And I meant it. I'd heard it but never thought about it's real meaning enough to assign it to a real life something.

"I dunno," her cheeks turned a faint shade of pink and she nearly tripped over a rock. "Um...I dunno...you look at his butt...try to see how cute he is from one to ten...look at his muscles, I guess."

"Ah," I tried to remember a time when I did any of those things. "Yeah, I suppose I have checked out guys a couple of times." Raki-chan looked at me with renewed interest.

"Really?" She edged closer to me. "Who is it? Who? Who?" Her eyes widened. "It was Fuji-kun, wasn't it?"

"I told you, I don't like him like that," I rolled my eyes. "I just checked out this guy from WacDonalds once...and..." My lips formed a straight line.

"Who else?" asked Raki-chan, obviously curious. "Who else?"

"I just...sort of...might have...checked out..." my voice grew lower in volume. "Ei-Eiji-kun..."

"You what Eiji?" I screamed louder-way louder-than I should have. Mostly because the face of Kikumaru Eiji's best friend or something, Fuji Syusuke, was right in front of me.

"N-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-n-no-n-n-n-no-n-n-n-n-n-n-no-"

"Girl talk," said Raki-chan, smiling coyly. "Don't wanna be that pervy guy listening to girl's conversations, now do we, Fuji Syusuke?"

Fuji-kun smiled, though I thought I saw a hint of disappointment. "Not in the mood for it today."

"Today?" I exclaimed. I thought that I overreacted but didn't correct myself.

"Where's Kikumaru?" asked Raki-chan, looking around.

"Over there with Oishi," Fuji-kun pointed off to some place in the crowd. Raki-chan rushed into said crowd and made a path from the people that she bumped or knocked down. I wondered why she would be in such a rush but then realized...I had told her that I liked Eiji-kun. Had I mentioned that I liked Eiji-kun a really long time ago? Was she...going to tell him?

"She won't," said Fuji-kun evenly, staring off at where Raki-chan had disappeared. He saw my look of surprise and said, "Tell Eiji that you like him, I mean."

"Ah...H-how did you-"

"Know?" he looked off at the sky and smiled mysteriously. The first signs of stars started to show and the moon came out of the clouds, highlighting portions of his face. "I don't really know. You just seem to."

"I used to like him..." I admitted quietly. "I haven't liked him that way since...May, I think. Or April." I couldn't quite remember as much about Eiji-kun since I didn't like him(as a crush)anymore. "But, now we're friends. And actually talking. I think...that that's much better than a one-sided crush."

"Yeah," said Fuji-kun. Maybe he was thinking of the time when he liked Raki-chan and how they became friends as well. Or maybe something else.

"Is it..." I paused and gulped. The clouds covered the moon again. Confidence...I needed confidence. "Do you still like Raki-chan?" I blurted. He looked down at me. The moon came out again and the light shined in his bright blue eyes. His mouth was slightly aghast. Did I surprise Fuji-kun?

The moon disappeared, and so did Fuji-kun's surprised expression. He was smiling, but his eyes were open.

"Yeah," he put a finger over his mouth. "But it's a secret, okay?" I nodded. We both looked to where Raki-chan had run off. What I saw made my blood run cold(not really, but let's say it did for dramatic effect)and my breath get caught in my throat. It was Eiji-kun and Suzuyama Kei, holding hands and laughing about something. Suzuyama-san saw me and winked evilly. I smiled back because I knew it would annoy her, but I was still bothered.

"Are you _sure_ you don't like him?" asked Fuji-kun, with an obvious undertone. I swatted the idea away.

"Of course. She just bothers me." Fuji-kun raised an eyebrow.

"Why is that?" he asked. I thought about it-not about why she annoyed me but how to put it into words.

"Well...she's all obsessed about him and possessive, I guess. She just supposed that I was trying to go out with him and..." That I'd get my heart broken...I got mad because she thought that Eiji-kun didn't like me... "Okay. Maybe I do like him. A little." I frowned. "Sort of?"

He turned his head towards Eiji-kun and Suzuyama Kei and waved. They both returned the wave with full enthusiasm. It just sort of annoyed me further.

"Would you like to sit down?" asked Fuji-kun, gesturing to a nearby bench. It was not until I sat down that I realized how exhausted I was. For what felt like a few awkward minutes, Fuji-kun and I watched while Eiji-kun, Suzuyama Kei, Raki-chan and Oishi-kun (who I'd yet to speak to) played some small booth games. "Hey, Saitou-chan?" I realized then that I had fallen asleep, and was leaning against Fuji-kun's shoulder.  
"OHMIGOSH! SORRY!" I lifted my head immediately and felt my face heat up a million degrees.

Fuji-kun smiled pleasantly. "Oh, no problem Saitou-chan. You should know that our friends have wandered quite a ways by now, though. It's also getting a bit late..." I glanced at my leather wrist watch, one I had received from my parents some years before I left the house, and then thumbed the blue sea glass necklace that Eiji-kun had gotten me for my birthday just a few months(or so?)before. I felt...betrayed. But why? Eiji-kun hadn't done anything bad...except fraternize with my first ever enemy. Was that why I was so angry and sad? Or...was Fuji-kun right? Did I really still like Eiji-kun?

But...how could that be? Wouldn't a person know if they liked someone? Or...could my like have been a different one? Like...love or something? Ew. Ew. Ew! No! I was only fifteen. There was no way that I was in love. My life wasn't a shojo manga or some kind of fan fiction. Maybe I just admired him before and now I liked him. Or I was over thinking the entire situation. Fuji-kun was probably wrong. A hand waved in front of my face.

"Saitou-chan?" I turned to Fuji-kun, feeling emotionally drained for some reason. "Are you alright? Did you hear what I said?"

"Ah...no. Could you please repeat it?"

"Sure," he smiled. "I was asking if you would consider going out with me-"

"Okay."

"Excuse me?"

"I said," I grinned at him wickedly, feeling somewhat mutinous. "Okay. Let's go out Fuji-kun."

~I~R~I~S~


	16. The Reason Why

Iris

Chapter 16. The Reason Why

"Saitou-chan?" I turned to Fuji-kun, feeling emotionally drained for some reason. "Are you alright? Did you hear what I said?"

"Ah...no. Could you please repeat it?"

"Sure," he smiled. "I was asking if you would consider going out with me-" Time slowed down. I thought of Eiji-kun-no, Kikumaru-and Suzuyama Kei holding hands and how much it had hurt me to see it. I thought of how much it must've hurt everyday for Fuji-kun. Fuji-kun had to watch the girl he'd liked since seventh grade regularly pronounce her like for his team captain each week. How could anyone survive that? The pain...the hurt...all of it must've hurt...so much.

Fuji-kun was either way stronger than me, or dying on the inside. He...needed some help and so did I. Maybe...we could help one another get over the person that we liked.

"Okay." There. I had said it before I had any time to think of any possible consequences. It was out there. I couldn't back out or go all shy on myself. It was there. I said yes.

"Excuse me?"

"I said," I grinned at him widely, feeling somewhat mutinous. "Okay. Let's go out Fuji-kun."

There was no turning back to Fuji-kun's reaction, whether he was kidding or not. It was my first step. But, to my surprise, he smiled at me and said, "Okay. We're a sort of couple then."

"Are we...on the same page though?"

"I think. What's your take on it?" he asked. And I thought. And thought. And summed up my idea.

"It's not a real relationship," I started. "We're going to be together to get over the people we like. It's not a relationship-relationship, but a friend/couple going out thing, right?"

He smiled at me.

"You're quite the smart girl, Saitou-chan," he smiled. "It's something more twisted than I could see you getting into."

"Twisted?" Twisted? "How so?" Then the moon came out of the clouds once more, as though it purposely wished to highlight his features for the drama of the moment. His eyes shined a lapis-lazuli color.

"You do realize that this 'relationship' is based on bitterness, right? It's not real but for our own benefits. We just want to get over the people we like by using others. That sounds pretty bitter to me," he looked at me, all seriousness in tact. "I just want to make sure that you're okay with that. No offense, but you seem a bit...fragile for it."

"I'm fine with it," I smiled. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with our plan. We would just act like a couple to try to ignore our feelings for others until we forgot about them. It seemed pretty innocent to me. "And there's no need to worry. I'm not as weak as others might think." Working twelve hour shifts doing paper work in the dead of night till dawn would kill any sign of weakness in you, as well as having an endless amount of gore-fest slumber parties with Ren-chan.

"I never thought that you were weak. Most people would think that this was sick, I think."

"It doesn't seem all that bad to me."

"Depends on how you see it, I guess. I've never been that positive," He glanced at me. "Since we're sort of a couple now, can I have a hug?"

"Wh-wha?" I blushed. I knew that I probably looked like a tomato at that point, and I couldn't stop staring at Fuji-kun. "E-eh?"

He chuckled. "Just a joke. You're so cute when you blush, Saitou-chan." I probably blushed harder.

At this rate, I would probably forget about my crush on Kikumaru in no time, right? Right?

~I~R~I~S~


	17. The Meetings Part One

Iris

Salty- Oh, thank god. I waited for a number of viewers to comment before reading the comments. Oh, I thought that people would say that the last two chapters sucked... My heart was beating so fast! So, here's the next two chapters! (Oh god. I lost count of how many months it's been...I'm soo sorryy! I got bored of fanfic for a month or so then my room got reorganized so I couldn't find or remember my password...Just found it today... TT-TT)

Chapter 17. The Meetings Part One

It was a week before school started, a week after Fuji-kun and me decided to go out with one another, when we had our first date. Let's start, as I usually do, from the beginning.

~I~R~I~S~

I was in a deep, dark forest surrounded by oak trees. There was no way to escape. I walked back and forth but the trees came neither closer no farther. It was as if I was trapped in a mirage, or I was on some sort of substance that I didn't remember taking. Then something went off far away. It came closer and closer with each passing second, like a ravenous monster who wanted desperately to get me. I wanted to run but I was suddenly locked in place. No way out. No way to defend myself. I was doomed.

The sound came closer until I recognized it. A loud, shrill sound. An alarm clock?

I jolted in my bed, seeing my ordinary canary yellow ceiling and the worried/annoyed faces of Kazuma and Ren-chan staring down at me.

"What?" They glanced at each other. "Did I die or something?" I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and watched both of them sigh in relief.

"We thought you were sick when you slept in," said Kazuma, caramel brown eyes still visibly worried. "We were afraid that Rika-chan would come back." Rika was what they called my sick alternate personality. It came from Ill Katsumi, Ill being said in English. Illka, Irka, Rika. Simple.

"And," started Ren-chan grimly. "we all know that once Rika arrives, a plague befalls us all." Ren-chan had been looking especially grim lately. The bags under her eyes had gotten heavier, her hair was a mess and she didn't even bother with her clothes anymore.

Ren-chan suddenly looked at me and smiled. "Do not worry young mortal, I am not sick nor am I injured," Her eyes and smile grew warm. "I'm just a bit tired from high school midterms." How did she know I was worried? "You looked like you were about to have a seizure." Angels damn it!

"Oh." Kazuma frowned and looked at me seriously, begrudgingly? "You got a message from _Fuji._" He spat his name out like a terrible taste. "He wants to take you out on a _date_ at five."

"Where? And what've you got against Fuji-kun?" I frowned.

He rolled his eyes. "Outside of the movie theater at the Honda market center. And he's _just_ the scumbag that's dating my sister, _just_ to get over Tenjo-san."

"It was...a mutual agreement," I told him. "and you used to like Fuji-kun. Weren't you two, like, friends or something?"

Kazuma rolled his eyes again and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

"That mortal..." Ren-chan muttered before following Kazuma out of the door. I sighed, before remembering that Fuji-kun had asked me on a date. A date?

"My first date?" I screamed to an empty canary yellow room. I heard a brief laugh in the living room, then shouting. I guessed that Ren-chan and Kazuma had been in another argument. This had been regular, ever since Kazuma got there. But why?

~I~R~I~S~

Later at five o'clock sharp, I was in front of the movie theater after my landlady, Mrs. Tsuyukawa, drove me there. She was a Sunday driver and there was a lot of traffic that day, and I thought that I was going to be very, very late. But I wasn't. I, according to my watch, was right on time. Thank the angels and Justin Timberlake!

While sitting on a bench near the ticket booth(under a light, since the sky was starting to darken)I scrutinized my outfit, neither casual nor posh. A black, layered, knee length skirt and a scarlet blouse. I wondered if it may have been too much for a horror movie, but Fuji-kun's arrival broke me out of my thoughts.

He was wearing black jeans and a white, button up shirt, rather similar to his school uniform. He smiled when he saw me-not that he hadn't already been smiling.

"Hey," he sat on the bench, something shockingly graceful. "Have you been waiting long, Saitou-chan?" I shook my head.

"Nope. I think I got here about four minutes ago." Actually, it was ten. But potato po-tah-to.

"Are you up for Gorefestiphobia 3D?" he asked, obviously psyched for the number one horror movie made that year.

"Heck yeah!" And so was I! I'd been looking forward to it since Gorefestiphobia 1. "Hope it's better than the sequel."

"Yeah, not enough gore. _Way_ too many shirtless guys."

I laughed while we walked into the theater.

"But I want to _go!_ I don't like scary movies, nya!"

"Deal with it Kikumaru!" Kikumaru? Nya? It had to be Eiji-kun, and the other voice was shrill and motherly, so it had to be Raki-chan!

"Hey, Fuji-kun," I prodded him in the back while making sure to keep my voice low. "Did you hear them?"

He nodded. "Want to sit by them?" I must have looked worried. "We may be trying to get over them, but they're still our friends."

I nodded. "Yeah, you're right." But I wasn't sure that it was the right thing to do.

We walked to the back rows and to the middle of the isles where Raki-chan and Eiji-kun were arguing and annoying their neighbors. They didn't even seem to notice us.

"Hey," said Fuji-kun. Both Raki-chan and Eiji-kun stopped to look at both of us, greet us, and go back to arguing. "Okay."

We both sat down next to them, pretty sure that they wouldn't mind. It was a few minutes before the lights turned down(it was then when Eiji-kun had quieted down)and the credits started rolling. The first was for a bowling game gone wrong. A boy fell within that odd crevice where the pins and bowling ball went down and discovers an evil group of aliens hiding within there. The next was something about a puppy; at that point I stopped paying attention and started texting. Eiji-kun next to me was elbowing me in ribs about it, but I ignored him.

"Tsumi-chan," he whispered to me. "The movie's starting!" I thought I heard panic in his voice and looked up at his face. There was real horror there. Why was he looking to me for answers? "HELP ME!" he mouthed. I remembered what Fuji-kun had said. Just because he and I were dating, didn't mean that I had to avoid Eiji-kun.

"Ah..." My mind was blank. Oh Justin Timberlake. I remembered why I was avoiding him. I _liked _him! "Just...try to ignore the movie and...do something else." I felt stupid, like my brain had been removed then punched down my esophagus.

He smiled at me, shakily, and twiddled his thumbs to get away from the...commercials? Wow, he _was_ a bit of a wimp when it came to horror movies. Was I that scared when I was in the third grade, before I met Ren-chan? Hm...

~I~R~I~S~

?-pov

It was late afternoon as I sat in the cafe they had picked out. The window next to me allowed me to view the sun as it set below far away peer. I shifted uncomfortably as my companion sat in the booth seat across from me and her deep blue eyes stared into my hazel.

"So?" I asked, putting on a fake cheerful smile. "What is it, Yamashita-san?"

"Oh, I just had something I'd like to chat with you about, Suzuyama Kei."

~I~R~I~S~


	18. The Meetings Part Two

Iris

Salty- Oh...my...god...I am soooo sorry. I lost track of time and got bored for a while. And THEN I got a new computer and lost the files of the possible next chapter with the computer. This computer also does not come with word, which I like. I found something else...which is okay. So here...I feel disappointed in myself. And greetings to Raf Kowalski, StarlightTango, and 32692010. NOW LET JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE GUIDE ME TO A GOOD CHAPTER!

Chapter 18. The Meetings Part Two

Katsumi-pov

Gorefestiphobia was part of a so far three part series that had begun somewhere in Eastern Europe from a novelist named Eagor Smirnowski. He wrote one novel (which I'd read, of coarse, as any fan should) called Sheep For The Slaughter, a book about a hotel which vampires frequent to slaughter humans. The plot centers around a small group of teenagers who are trapped in the hotel and fight for their lives within the pent house which had been blessed by a priest when he commited suicide rather than be killed by vampires.

The main characters were James Timberlake (A hottie McHottie-Hotsermann) whose last name just happens to be TIMBERLAKE. T-I-M-B-E-R-L-A-K-E. And there was also some chick that he married in the second movie but she died at the end so she didn't really matter. In the first movie, they were just trying to escape. In the second, the vampires came back for them because James killed their king and queen. In the third, James and his younger sister Katherina are going back to get the vampires and save James's wife, who was actually turned into a vampire.

Which I think is more or less equivolent to DEATH. So he should just leave her dead, come to Seigaku and propose to me already.

~I~R~I~S~

As the commercials sluggishly passed, tiny beads of impatience and excitement passed through my blood like sparks of electricity-which I'd read about in books but never knew could ACTUALLY happen.

"I. Can't. Wait." Raki-chan muttered, yet somehow still conveying a bursting excitement which Fuji and I shared.

Within my excitement, I vaguely remembered Eiji-kun sitting next to me and glanced at his bright red hair.

'What did I ever see in him?' I wondered, then thought it mean of me. Of course I saw something in him. Eiji-kun, the attractive, red headed and bubble middle school boy, a 171 cm boy. Who I had checked out. And who I knew nothing about.

A feeling like walking through a cold shower hit me then. I knew NOTHING about my friends. Except that Fuji had a psychic sister named something that started with Y and that Raki-chan was in love with some guy named Tezuka. In my thoughts I pulled my legs up to my chest to rest my forehead on them. Fuji glanced at me then back at the screen.

Kikumaru-pov

I didn't like today so far. The morning started out normal enough, though, when it started. It did, and all I wanted out of it was to eat some breakfast and possibly call Tsumi-Chan and offer to teach her how to play tennis (no reason, just a whim.)

Then, just as I was about to eat my breakfast, I got a call. From Raki-chan. And of course, mother does not allow phone calls at the table. So I talked while afraid that my food was getting cold. Raki-chan proposed our usual Sunday vacation day off-thingy.

It had started some time during Freshman year, before we knew who each other were, when we accidentally met sometime later in the year and fought over a bus seat. In the end some old lady took the seat but that affirmed our friendship forever.

Anyway, I was surprised that Raki-chan had proposed a trip to the yogurt shop not far from my house and a movie. Usually we just went to the pet shop where I visited my favorite turtle, Rocket Pedro. I hadn't named him, by the way, she did. I was also surprised to see Tsumi-chan and Fujiko-chan at the theater. After a while, it became obvious that Raki-chan and Fujiko-chan had planned it. Tsumi-chan didn't seem to think so.

In fact, Fujiko-chan and Raki-chan had been trying to set up little things between me and her all semester, but I was sure that Tsumi-chan hadn't gotten the hint from them. She was innocent in that way.

Besides, we didn't like each other like that. Well, I know she didn't feel that way about me. I sort of suspected it when we were second years, but as time went on I knew that I was totally and completely wrong.

~I~R~I~S~

The theater darkened as I twiddled my thumbs more and more and more. Occasionally they would hit each other and it would really hurt, but I was otherwise fine, I guess. I just really, really didn't want to watch the scary movie. Because you see, for me horror movies were a process. First I could watch them and be fine and cool like I usually was. Then I left the theater, and I would swear that people were FOLLOWING me. All the way to my bed room. Then, when I turned off the light, I'd know they weren't in my closet or under my desk because no one would stalk me, because I was just me.

But I would FEEL their presence in some odd way. As though that was all they were. Both of my brothers would call me paranoid, and Yuki (my younger older sister) would occasionally call me a freak because she was Yuki.

No, what bothered me much, much more was that Tsumi-chan was psyched up to watch the movie. Why, though, did this bother me?

Perhaps because I had misjudged her.

"I had misjudged you," a man on a commercial said. That grabbed my attention. On the currently black and white screen portrayed an american man and woman standing in an front of a small air plane, the wind blowing through the woman's dark hair. The man wore a steely yet sad expression, lining his face with many wrinkles while the younger woman looked like she was about to cry. I noted that her lipstick was very dark for some reason. "You were better than me, better than them, better than all of the rest."

"No, Kane-sama, it was you who was the best. You were the one who saved our lives. You were the one who bought Safety and Health Life Insurance."

"Yes, but you were the one who reminded me. Now," he looked dramatically toward the sky. "Now we can ride this plane without worrying for our children's future life support."

"Oh, Kane-sama!" She ran towards the man, arms outstretched as though she were about to fly, then they embrassed. He lifted her legs off the ground and spun her around in a perfect 360 degree circle. Afterwards they kissed with embarrasing passion.

"Ew," whispered Tsumi-chan, though her voice sounded a mile away. I saw that her knees were up on the chair, her knees covering her lips. "I saw tongue. Did you guys see tongue. God, old people making out is SO gross."

Was she in a bad mood? I'd never heard her be mean about old people before. Maybe she always was and I just didn't know her that well. It was possible. I stared just above the screen for a moment, leaned back in the seat and closed my eyes. A sudden burst of drowzyness errupted from my chest with such suddenness that I twitched a little. It was lucky that no one noticed!

And I thought. Thought about everything that I knew about Saitou Katsumi. Then I wondered why I even bothered.

"Ooh! The movie's starting!" Katsumi chirped. A glance at her revealed her caramel eyes shining brightly. A toothy grin shot up on her face, reminding me of Naruto. Raki-chan said something that I didn't catch. I was too busy realizing that I liked Saitou Katsumi, age fifteen, birthday 15 June, height 162 cm. Older sister of Saitou Kazuma, living in her own apartment. Worships someone named Justin Timberlake and the Angels (celestial creatures or Los Angeles baseball team, who knows.) My first kiss.

~I~R~I~S~


	19. The Meetings Part Three

Iris

Salty- In order to feed my insatiable ego, I have started to write again! Thank you to Crazy For Mac-A-Damian Nutz, RockPrincess410, ai-chan97, Raf Kowalski, and StarlightTango. I think I got a thing which is not a macbook (I'm SOO computer savvy). The thing is, (you guessed right Raf Kowalski) I uploaded microsoft word but it ended up failing for some reasons and seems to have spread to my computer camera TT-TT. And also, I'm sorry Eiji. You'll have to bear some one sidedness for a bit. And Raf Kowalksi you have given me an idea which I will steal for the very end!

Oh and for future reference Minagawa Junko is the voice actress for Ryoma Echizen, who will be coming into play very soon. Because the last chapter was very short, I will switch povs, like a lot.

Chapter 19. The Meetings Part Three

Fuji-pov

Though invisible to the uncaring eyes of the patrons who were unfortunate enough to buy tickets to what was being called the worst ending to a trilogy ever made, two subtle things changed within the theater. Well, many more occured but there were two which pertained to the emotional and possibly the mental health of some of my best friends.

I wished the both of them the best of luck, leaned forward in my broken chair (the seat did not go down, for whatever reason and I was left sitting on the upright metal edge) and drew out a long, oddly broken sounding sigh. Why did I feel so sad?

Kikumaru-pov

And she had a job at a flower shop that she really hates. Is clumsy. Doesn't have a lot of confidence in herself. Isn't gorgeous but is gorgeous and also pretty. Has no sense of direction.

When she was seven, she had a younger brother named Akira who died because he got sick. For a while he was her imaginary friend and they somehow traded personalities.

She had a younger sister named Rika. And I like her. I like her. I. Like. Her. HOLY JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE BATMAN!

Katsumi-pov

The movie was starting but I didn't have the heart to pay attention. My stomach felt queezy, like there was something really cold down in it. Not like ice cream, more like a huge head of frozen cabbage. Or just a plain head. Could a head fit in a stomach? No, probably not. Anyway, what did I know about my friends?

'You suck,' my mind whispered in the voice of some horror movie character. 'They will abandon you. You can't even remember their birthdays, only Eiji's but that's because you had a crush on him, you prick. That's why your relationship with Fuji-kun will end. Because you suck. Besides, he's still in love with Raki-chan and you're not even sure how you _really _feel about Eiji-kun. Or Kikumaru-san or whatever. Because. You. Suck. A. Lot. And you will NEVER get to meet Justin Timberlake.'

Even though I knew that that thought was drastically pessimistic, parts of it rang true. My relationship with Fuji-kun, although very new, would have to end sometime. Especially because there was nothing romantic about it in the first place. Except for some odd yearning which we shared for one of our friends. (Why had my own mind called me a prick? That was rude!)

'Just forget it,' I thought in my normal mind-voice thing, which sounded more or less like Minagawa Junko, for some reason. 'Just forget everything and watch the movie for the Angels' sake!' But I couldn't. Because an image of Kikumaru Eiji suddenly flashed into my mind.

Of him holding hands and laughing and smiling and playing games with Suzuyama Kei and I shouldn't have did what I did but I did. A sudden sickness grew in my stomach which was stupid but still happened so I stood up, walked down the aisle to the complaint of some of the seated people and I walked out of the theater, to the bathroom and sat on top of one of the sinks for no reason.

A lady with an expensive red coat attempted to walk in, saw me, then walked out. She probably thought that I was crazy but it didn't matter. Was I that angry that Kikumaru Eiji was holding hands with my arch nemisis? Was I insane and really that jealous? Was the combination too much for me?

Oh god, there was something seriously wrong with me.

Kazuma-pov

I sighed. For no reason, really. I just did. In front of me, Momo-chan and ochibi (who was really a month older than me but who I still liked to call ochibi) were having a burger/fries/shake/soda eating contest. This had pretty much become our routine; meet on Sundays, go to the burger place a few blocks from Seigaku and eat and eat and eat. But I didn't want to. I felt sick and I wasn't sure why.

Maybe it was because my so-called-sister was dating Fuji. It shouldn't have bothered me but it did. Because Fuji was cool and all, like really nice if not a bit weird and sadistic at times, but I'd seen the way Kikumaru looked at her. He _liked _her. A lot. Like, really a lot. The way I liked Space Palerio 6 or Ren-chan (I'd yet to tell anyone.) And I was totally fine with that, if not slightly weirded out that someone looked at my SISTER that way. But then there was Katsumi.

Katsumi, either totally unaware of his feelings or being really crappy, had started to date Fuji as soon as Kikumaru was starting to realize it. I guess that was what made my stomach hurt, and it bothered me that I even cared. No, wait, it was Katsumi and a friend. I had full rights to care. Never mind.

I looked up at Momo-chan and ochibi and guess what happened?

A. I finally made out with Hannah Montana who walked into the store suddenly.

B. Alternatively, Selena Gomez broke up with Justin Bieber because he supposedly got some girl pregnant then walked into the shop and made out with me.

or C. I stupidly opened my mouth while Momo-chan was messilly eating and got second hand burger in my mouth, meaning that I had just gotten my first kiss taken away by him.

Oh Angels I don't even want to say it!

Katsumi-pov

The bathroom smelled a lot like dog barf. Or just regular barf. I didn't know if there was a difference but I'd smelled dog barf before and it smelled just like that restroom. If I didn't feel sick to my stomach about going back to the movie, about seeing Eiji-kun after storming out-I wasn't angry, just embarrassed-even though they probably didn't know what was going on.

Oh, there was something wrong with me!

"Saisai-chan!" Raki-chan opened the door, briefly showing the empty theater lobby and stepped in. Her hands went straight to her hips. "What's up with you? You've been gone for like half an hour."

"Feminine troubles," I answered almost immediately. She raised a thin, speculative eyebrow.

"Have you been sitting there the whole time?"

"No..."

"Is it about Eiji?"

"May-be..."

Then what she did surprised me for no reason whatsoever. Raki-chan walked to the sink and sat down next to me, wetting her skinny jeans.

"Tell me about it."

And I did. About everything. How I'd had a crush on Eiji-kun since middle school started, because he was the first person to talk to me, how I hadn't spoken to him again for two years, how I'd not seen my parents for over a year, how I stopped liking him for a while and how I was now confused and how there might have been something going on between Kazuma and Ren-chan and how nothing seemed the same.

"Ordinarilly, I'd say that life was supposed to change and have lots of up and downs but DAAAAAAAAAAAMN, that's heavy." I laughed, a fluttery thing which surprised me.

"Still," Pride made me choke on my next few words, and something else made me say them. "I feel so stupid."

"About storming out?" she asked in disbelief, head tilting as she did so.

"No, just that I care that he was holding hands with-with _her. _You know?"

"No, actually, I don't," she stared up at the ceiling panels. Wads of wet toilet paper were stuck up there. "This bathroom smells like something threw up."

"I know right?"

It was quiet for a moment. "I know I'm overenthusiastic," she said. I was about to object when she said, "About Tezuka. About how I really like him and all, but it's weird. He said he liked me when we were second years-sort of ish-and I said I liked him too, but nothing happened. We don't even talk. Well, he never talks anyway. I've tried to tell myself that he's just shy but-Oh hey!" I looked at her in alarm. "Look who's splurging now! You're really good at changing subjects, Saisai-chan!" Then she got up and walked out, presumably to the theater.

For whatever reason, I hesitated to stare at the toilet paper wads then followed her to my seat. No one behind me complained this time. The movie must have been slow. Both Fuji-kun and Eiji-kun glanced at me but nothing else happened besides that. And I was very, very glad. Because I really didn't want to overreact again.

But there was still the unexplained Suzuyama Kei incident. What was up with that?

~I~R~I~S~


	20. Love?

Iris

Salty-Okay, I'm gonna try to keep up this pace! BURNINGGGGGGGGGGG! (Yeah, I tried to make a tenipuri family chapter and it didn't work out so yeah...back to Iris.)

Raf Kowalski- I definitely can write new chapters! WHOOT HOOT! (Inside joke...) And I was probably going to pair Fuji with someone by the end of the story but...

StarlightTango- Yeah, I didn't even read the chapter so that was probably why...Read from now on I will!

Chapter 20. Love...?

Still Katsumi Pov-

The movie, in short, was not good. It was brilliant!

"I liked the part where Sarah"-That was James's wife-"got staked. I didn't think James would have the guts to do it," Raki-chan announced as we left the movie theater. The starless indigo of the night which had only begun to descend over the sky when we had all arrived had now swallowed it whole.

The only thing that gave us light now were the glowing neon signs of the shops (there were not many) and scantilly placed lights. It was a little spoooooky! Just the way I liked it after a horror movie.

"The first one was better," Fuji-kun remarked to my disgust.

"No way! In the first one they were just trying to escape but in this one they learn the meaning of true love and friendship! Also, the funding and cameras were a _lot _bet-"

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! WHOOO!" The conversations and thoughts of nearly every one in a half mile radius must have been inturrupted all at once, because of a certain Kikumaru Eiji. That particular red head was running around a lamp post, arm swung around it, making his own little circle on the pavement. At one point I swore I saw three of him! "KIKUMARU ZONE!"

"Oh god, he's making _me _dizzy." Raki-chan fell back onto the pavement, sitting rather than hitting her head. She clutched onto a small, leafy tree for support. I followed suit, feeling closer to Raki-chan than I probably ever had before.

"Is it me," I inquired to the standing Fuji-kun. "Or is there _three _of him?"

"Se"-He swung around once-"al"-"St"-"ep."

"Translated," said Fuji. "It's Seal Step. He's moving so fast that he can replicate himself. He did it at a game or two, didn't you see?"

I would've remembered that... "DAMN YORI! He's my boss," I said to the confused Fuji-kun and Raki-chan (as if there were others...) "I swear to Justin Timberlake, he's, like, a dictator."

"Because 'like' should always proceed 'a dicator.'" I laugh, and so does Raki-chan and Fuji-kun, but what about Eiji-kun? He just continued to spin, and spin, and spin.

"Are you glad to be out of the movie theater?" Raki-chan voices out my idea.

"NOPE!" Though he did not say this angrilly, we didn't return to the subject. Aware that Eiji-kun would not stop spinning any time soon, the remaining three of us sat on the bench. Actually, it was the one I sat on upon my arrival.

It seemed cool for some reason.

"So," I said. "Anything happening in tennis?" I look to Raki-chan and Fuji-kun who are sitting on both sides of me.

"The Nationals are nearly over," says Fuji-kun. "We have a few more teams to beat."

"Us too," says Raki-chan, who is the vice-captain of the girl's tennis team. "We didn't do so well in the Regionals but we're trying to do better. We might win but the last teams seem...difficult. Still, we're not hopeless."

"You sound quite pessimistic," Fuji commented while looking over my head. While they continued to chatter, I looked at Kikumaru, who was somehow playing ring-around-the-rosie with four of his clones. Why NASA hadn't taken him yet, I had no idea.

"Syusuke!" From a sleek silver car came the call of Y-san, Fuji-kun's sister, whose arm was waving for him to join her. Her closed eyes opened a bit to look at Raki-chan, Eiji-kun and myself. "Hello Murasaki-san, Saitou-san and Kikumaru-san!" She smiled at us brightly.

Eiji-kun's clones were gone now and he waved at Y-san merrilly.

"Oh, Murasaki-san," Y-san suddenly remembered something. "You're father called. He can't make it so he asked me to come and get you." Raki-chan nodded solemnly, stood and said goodbye to me and Eiji-kun before calling shot gun and high tailing it to the front seat. Fuji-kun shook his head before following suit and sitting in the back seat. Y-san's eyes remained on me.

"Hello." I waved timidly. She nodded.

"Do not let what you saw at the fair affect you, Saitou-san," she shifted the gear, breaking our eye contact. She smiled up at me much like her younger brother and said, "By the way, my name is Yumiko."

Then she left. Holy crap, she truly was a psychic. I never really doubted it but OMG.

"What'd she mean by that?" asked Eiji-kun as he dizzilly plopped himself down on the bench. Feeling totally embarrassed about being jealous, I shook my head.

"Nothing." I couldn't take my eyes off of the space where Yumiko-san's car had just been at the side walk.

"Whatcha looking at?" he pondered.

"The road. I don't know why."

Silence followed. I somehow sensed that it was my fault so I attempted to think of something to say, then I remembered.

"Eiji-kun," I turned to him. Like so many times before, his face ended up oddly close to mine. I didn't even blush. "When's your birthday?"

"November 28." He both sounded and liked slightly surprised. "Why do you ask?" I noted that he backed away slightly, cheeks slightly flushed, to stare at the light overhead.

"I realized that I'm a horrible friend because I don't know anything about my friends." More than anything, I was shocked that I'd told him. This seemed to register on my face.

"You're really not, nya," he said with a smile that very nearly reassured me.

"Prove it." I frowned, staring at the palms of my hands then his face. I ended up sounding angry for whatever reason.

"Well, just because you can't name things _now _doesn't mean that you don't know anything at all. Maybe you just forgot?" His enthusiasm and bright, cat-like smile made something dark and angry grow within my soul (emo...)

"That feels worse." A deep throaty sigh came from somewhere in Kikumaru's vague direction. I wouldn't have known because I had laid my forehead on my arms-back in the fetal position-and could only see the darkness provided by the back of my eyelids. Why did I do that?

"It's getting cold," said Eiji-kun. The sound of his calloused hands rubbing together rung through the silence, almost echoing. Looking up I found the street deserted.

"That's weird...Shouldn't there be more cars? It's only eight-thirty, isn't it." A glance at Eiji-kun's watch assured that it was definitely not eight-thirty. It was nearly eleven.

"Did the movie last longer than it said?" Eiji-kun had also seen his watch.

"It might sound silly," I paused to stare at the sky...the lights made it seem jet black. "but it seems like it might snow."

"'Cause it's soooooo cold!" he whined, his arms creating friction upon eachother. "How are you not cold?" Eiji-kun glanced at me.

I looked down at myself. A knee length skirt and a red spagetti strap blouse would certainly chill me on most days. Perhaps it was adrenaline from the movie? "Hope I'm not sick," I lamented, feeling my mouth become a grimace. Certainly, I would not want Eiji-kun-or anybody else for that matter-to see me sick! What if I tried to kiss them like Kazuma did? Or got insane strength or _**strip**_, like Kazuma! (He thought he was a chick at a bar and that's all I wish to divulge...)

A glance at Eiji-kun revealed him to be scrutinizing me, as though looking for any symptoms of illness. The cold gave him a faint redness in his cheeks. Randomly, I appraised his deep indigo eyes in my mind.

"We don't want a repeat of last time," he grinned and chuckled weakly.

"Yeah, wait, what?" Had Kazuma told him something? Oh Angels, what did I do?

"When I...took care of you the last time you...got sick," he said quietly, the baseball cap he was wearing shading his eyes but showing a definite rosy complection. Eiji-kun was turned away from me, the way an ashamed child might when his mother learned that they did something naughty. He took care of me? HE TOOK CARE OF ME?

"_What_-" My voice came out high and strained so attempted cough and calm myself down. "What did I do?" Instead of calm, it came out as a threat. This didn't so much as startle Eiji-kun. He glanced at me, the light letting me view only one of his eyes. It may have been the light that made his blush darker.

"You..." he inhaled sharply and chanted what may have been nervous "Nyas" several times under his breath. He closed the one eye which I could see, and inhaled sharply. This DEFINITELY did not help my ever growing consciousness. Then, all of a sudden, he laughed. A very sudden and boisterous laugh. Not nervous at all. "Isn't is SO weird?"

I felt weird by being left out of whatever was going on within that odd red haired scalp of his.

"What? What's weird?" Actually, I didn't feel weird. Annoyed was closer to the feeling.

He looked at me, ecstatic face fully revealed in the light.

"That we weren't friends before this! We didn't even talk, but now we're really good friends!" I thought about it. I laughed. "And, it's weird!"

The truth of it, however, quickly sobers my spirits. "But what happened when you took care of me while I was sick?"Just then, Eiji-kun was saved by the bell. I mean, literally, because my ring tone was a church bell.

Flipping it open revealed the number to be that of my apartment building, likely Mrs. Tsuyukawa.

"Hello"-I paused to mouth how Eiji-kun was not getting off that quickly, who was celebrating with a fist pump-"Tsuyukawa-san?"

_"Hello? Saitou-san, I'm sorry. I might be late-Takahashi-san needs babysitting again_." I rolled my eyes. Takahashi-san was an often busy father of three boys who were the nuisance of the entire building. I never learned their names but learned to never put packages outside my door for fear that they would either open, urinate on, or throw my packases into the parking lot from the second floor.

I bit my lip. "How late?"

_"Maybe to one AM at the earliest..." _Her voice was not apologetic in the least.

"Um...let me check with a friend..." I turned to Eiji-kun. "Where's your ride?" After later analysis, I realized that this was rude of me to say.

"Don't have one. I wanted to say goodbye to you before you left, then walk home after."

"You live close," It wasn't a question. I put aside what to make of him attempting to bid me farewell this late into the night.

"Yup, nya," he nodded enthusiastically.

"Would you mind if I stayed over until the morning? I'll leave as quickly as possible," Though this seemed polite at the time, Eiji-kun shook his head vigorously.

Believing that he was objecting, I was about to tell Tsuyukawa-san so before he said, "You can stay as long as you'd like!"

"Oh, Tsuyukawa-san? I've got it covered. Thank you for the ride!"

~I~R~I~S~

It was possible that Kikumaru Eiji had the largest collection of toothpaste which I had ever, ever seen. Consealed in a two slight drawers beneath his bathroom sink were piles upon piles of toothpaste, organized by flavor, each filled to the brim. The oddest one there was a tie between dill pickle flavored and lime cheesecake.

"They're gross," I said, forgetting my manners. "Oh...Sorry..." Eiji-kun frowned thoughtfully, folding his arms in front of him and staring at my reflection in the mirror.

"Mm...You'll have to use the dill pickle one tomorrow then," he laughed at my utterly horrified face. A glance at said face in the mirror reminds me that I still have to ask Eiji-kun about what happened when he took care of me.

"Okay," I hammered my fist upon my open palm. "Time's a wasting'!" Without hesitating, as I definitely would have when I met Eiji-kun (oh my! I called him Kikumaru-san then!), I dragged him to his bed by his collar and tossed him on top of his blue sheets. I attributed by sudden physical bluntness to the fact that I waited outside, in the night, for over two hours.

"W-what are you-" I sat at his side and hushed him.

"What happened when I was sick," My eyes bore into his own-or at least I attempted to make them do so. "Tell the truth."

He sighed a deep, soul crushing sigh. For a moment, he looked everywhere but my eyes. Then Eiji-kun fixed his gaze, a sorry, pleading sight. "Do you remember when you had that dream? How Justin Timberlake came to your house?"

It dawned on me. Not at that moment but my body knew what had happened before my mind did. "Yeah...but what does that-" Several of the moments came back to me at once. Wearing just my underwear and a tanktop, then Justin telling me to change. Making him get me ramen and water. He propped me up on a wall to give me water, had trouble with putting me down...and he caught me at some point...and in return I..."Ah."

That singular syllable sounded dumb and rather dull as it came out. Which was odd because I felt SO much more about that. A burning in my face and something like electricity and puke combined within my stomach. In return for Justin Timberlake catching me, I ki-kissed him and told him that I loved him...But did I really think that what happened was a dream? Was it real?

A glance at Eiji-kun's face said yes. His cheeks were inflamed, nearly matching his hair, his deep blue eyes focused upon a poster in his room. The bandaid on his cheek was peeling. Then he laid down, hands behind his head, face looking away from me. This action forced me off the bed, but I was too stunned to register it.

_**MY KISSING VIRGINITY WAS TAKEN AWAY.**_

_"You were my first kiss..." _Eiji-kun's voice was quiet, but flustered and unaccusing. Eh... Eh... EHHH? I was somebody's-well, not somebody, Eiji-kun's-first kiss...and he was mine... Huh. I couldn't even couldn't even remember my first kiss. I COULDN'T EVEN REMEMBER MY FIRST FREAKING KISS! "Nya."

At somepoint I apparently sat because I was on the floor, my head resting againt Eiji-kun's bright yellow bedside post. Eiji-kun, in the meantime, was not moving but had somehow managed the fetal position.

Then, rather than angry or shocked, I felt sorry for him. I was the one who took his first kiss rather than someone who he truly loved. Me, who had only been his friend for less than a semester. Surely, he should have been upset with me. Actually, he'd had a couple of months to talk to me about that, and many oppurtunities.

The school beach trip...the tennis games I managed to stay for...the end of the summer festival...the movie...so why hadn't he? Maybe he was...too nice. Maybe I totally forgot that Kikumaru Eiji was my friend, that we weren't the best of friends and that I'd only had one friend before him and Fuji-kun and Raki-chan. I was complicating things, wasn't I?

Saitou Katsumi, me, was an ordinary girl who made friends. She, or I, used to have a crush on one and was semi-dating one beyond the knowledge of everyone else. It was just an ordinary middle school story!

Suddenly, I felt at peace, like I'd seen the light or something. A Hallelujah burst into something like warmth in my chest, transforming the room into a singular, beautiful light!

"Nya!" That single self-administered nya was enough to break the silence and make Eiji-kun roll over and look at me. For a second I could only stare at him, taking in his features. His usually side spiked hair was sagging on one side but regular on the other. Eiji-kun's eyes face was paler than I was used to and made his eyes seem darker, even creepy. The paleness was probably because he'd been asleep, maybe napping.

"Did-" Eiji-kun looked shocked, even amazed. Then sunshine burst out of the pearly gates. A bird started to call out it's harmonious glow. Or that's at least what it looked like he saw, I supposed. "You just said Nya!"

"Yes, yes I did!" Then I grinned, like I'd not grinned in some months because everything seemed clear and crisp and clean and neat and beautiful. Hell, even Eiji-kun was a freaking Adonis! "I've seen the light!"

"Hoi...hoi..." His arm lifted half and inch then slapped his thigh and slid down. Eyes half closed and unable to even be excited, I supposed that he must have been very tired. Perhaps that was because he had to sit through a horror movie (though he obviously disliked him) and had spun around that lamp post so many times that it could have made an exotic dancer dizzy... that seemed about right.

For some odd reason, I smiled and calmly said, "Go to bed, Eiji," which was odd because I'd not meant to. Without argument my order was soon fulfilled. Within seconds, his dark circled eyes closed and soon even his skin began to be less pale. Why was it pale?

...

'HOLY CRAP! IT'S ONLY 39 DEGREES! HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THAT? OMG!' But then the deep scarlett jacket of Kikumaru Eiji's sister, Misako, became obvious. What had he said earlier? It get's really cold at night so here's a jacket? Something like that...

I glanced at him, almost daringly. (Why was it daring?) He only wore a bright white t-shirt and a pair of boxers-looking plaid shorts. He wasn't wearing his blanket. In fact, it was trapped below him. Should I have woken him up and made him put it on? The dark circles convinced me otherwise. Could I have even managed to pull the blanket without disturbing him? More than that, was I strong enough?

This time my stick thin arms-still ridiculously small beneath the fur trimmed coat-convinced me otherwise. As if a blanket was laying somewhere around the incredibly neat room, I ventured a thorough stare around. Sports magazines and video game consoles around the television...a CD for some girl J-pop band called something candy related...a rainbow of papers and sticky notes on the desk...another sports magazine and a nearly empty water bottle on the nightstand...AHA! A closet! But...what if his underwear was in there? Or dirty magazines or something?

In a lot of shonen harem manga that I'd read, the guy ALWAYS had dirty magazines somewhere. The girl usually burned them out of some sort of ridiculous jealousy thing. Would I do that if I found dirty magazines in my boyfriend/potential boyfriend/very, very oblivous crush's room? I didn't wish to find out.

So, I decided to test my strenghth with the blanket, which was tucked in very, very neatly into his bed, beneath...him...Crap.

Like most people on television about to do something difficult, I rubbed my hands together (although I didn't see a point) and took a deep, deep breath. Then I began to tilt Kikumaru, slowly and gently, which is very difficult with an adolescent young man. I began with the head and shoulders, pulling the baby blue blanket out slowly...then the back...and afterward I got frustrated and pushed his entire body on the wall which his bed was leaning up against. After that it was MUCH easier to pull the blankets out, push him back down and tuck him in.

Absently, I pushed a stray strand of red hair from his eye. It wasn't as dark...speaking of tiredness, how did I not wake him up?

'Holy cow!' I thought. 'It's three AM?' How had I stayed up without realizing it? Was I that emotionally indulged with myself that I had spent several hours brooding over my nonpotent relationship with a boy who was just a friend and nothing more? Was I so narcissistic that I'd totally ignored a movie and my friends to nearly cry in a bathroom about said relationship?

The answer was yes, by the way.

And...when I thought about it...was it creepy that I had just fixed Eiji-kun's hair? No...no...maybe? Why had I-Oh.

Maybe I wasn't over him...

No...

Maybe the reason that I had done that was because I'd never been over him and that there was a reason I'd thought so. Maybe my feelings were different than I'd believed. Like, say, it wasn't friendship that I'd felt.

Could it have been, say, perhaps, maybe...love? Of a motherly type, of course.

~I~R~I~S~

Salty- Very uneventful and yet eventful, wouldn't you say? I don't know how I'm going to fit it in but I promise more events and maybe some TENNIS ACTION?


	21. The Run

Iris

Salty- So...I WANT to say that I was busy but...Uninspired or uninterested would probably be a better word. I wrote something, but didn't like it. I hate saying this after all this time but... PLEASE REVIEW! It helps, I don't know how, but it DOES. Also, you'll find out what happened between Yamashita Kei and um...what was her name? Ren, right, Ren.

*Side note, I listened to The Kill By 30 seconds to Mars while writing. By the way, the Suzuyama whose house Eiji was in was Suzuyama Kei. Just thought I'd add that.

Chapter 21. The Run

I sat in the corner of my room, dazed. There was no work to do, no tennis games to watch, no younger brother there to hang out with, no goth chick to watch horror movie with, nothing to do. It was the middle of the day, nearly lunch time. In the corner of my room, I could see outside of my window from my unmade bed. Across the street was the WacDonalds beneath a bright baby blue sky, not a cloud in sight. I assumed it was warm, because the air conditioning wasn't working in my apartment and it was freaking BLAZING.

Then, suddenly, came a rapping at the door, which is a slightly outdated way of saying that someone knocked. The heat, however, made my response slow and lethargic, agitating the knocker to knock three times a freaking second.

"I'm coming!" The knocking stopped, thrusting the room into silence. I crossed the livingroom and threw open the door, only to find no one. The knocker had either left or...no. No. No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO! NO! NONNONNONONNONONNONNONOOOOO!

~I~R~I~S~

Kikumaru POV

I sat at the bottom of the stairs, the stairs which lowered from Katsumi's apartment door, twisted at a ninety degree angle and lowered down to face the parking lot behind the building. My breathing was surprisingly heavy and my face hot...even though running from the door hadn't been much exercise.

Nervousness had made me run, I knew that. But I wasn't exactly sure what convinced me to go to Katsumi's house in the first place. A vague idea that I had liked Katsu-chan had made me run there after leaving Suzuyama-chan's house, and an even vague one that I wanted to tell her made sure of it.

Standing in front of the door, though, had done something weird. Hearing her voice made me run away. I still couldn't completely understand the feeling. Something like dread mixed with a sudden loss of confidence. Insecurity, maybe, but maybe not.

The point was...that I felt like a creepy prankster for running from ALL the way from Raki-chan's house to Katsu-chan's, just for the purpose of knocking on my crush's door and more or less ding-dong ditching. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH ME?

I lifted my head from my knees and saw that some older woman was staring at me from her old blue truck. Her souless eyes stared at me from spectacles at least fifty years old. Spooked, I did the only thing that I could. I ran.

~I~R~I~S~

Katsumi POV

OMIGOD I HAVE A GHOST IN MY MOTHER******* APARTMENT BUILDING! GODDAMN IT WHAT THE HELL DID REN DO OMIGOD!

~I~R~I~S~

*Three days before, the Happy POP! Cat Cafe, 7:30 pm, Tokyo, Japan

Third persons POV

Both Yamashita Ren and Suzuyama Kei glared into eachother respective hazel-green and indigo blue eyes intently, waiting for the other move. Both knew that the other had information that they knew the other wanted, and wanted some in return. Ren made the first move.

Over the white and red spiral design table, she spread her hands, folding and unfolding them with a graceful calm.

"So," she drew out the words until Kei was unsure she was about to start again. "I know you want to know about my _client" _she emphasized the word. "Saitou Katsumi, mortal. And you know that I want to know why you are the way you are."

Kei sniffed in disdain, raising her perfectly tipped nose into the air. "I don't know what you mean."

Ren's eyes narrowed, resembling something suspiciously catlike.

"You know what I mean," her calm voice itself was somehow worse than shouting.

Kei inhaled deeply, a scratchy sound of congested lungs following. "Fine. But you go first, Yamashita-san."

Personally, Suzuyama Kei had never spoken to Yamashita Ren, but she certainly knew of her.

Yamashita's legend of gothic adventures had spread throughout the school; raiding morgues, kicking the ass of a nearby gang leader because they had claimed she was not gangsta, greeting the principal every morning with the Bird, and last but not least poisoning her enemy's pets with old fish.

Yamashita Ren then rolled her eyes, secretly glancing at the large, whimsical clock at the ceiling. Only three hours until Katsumi was supposed to be home.

"Alright. My client has feelings for your client, but doesn't seem to realize it. Well, subconsciously, anyway."

"What do you mean 'subconsciously'?"

Ren's eyes softened, just a little as she stared past Kei's own.

"My client has lost quite a bit in her time. A close family member, her home. As a way to not lose anyone else, she makes sure that in a good situation, everything remains the same. More or less. For example, if she...wants to buy a cat. If she wants to buy a cat but realizes the buying that cat could ruin the flow of the pet shop, she may adopt another cat, who she feels can be improved."

"As in...she's dating Fuji-san so that she doesn't go out with Eiji because she fears that she'll lose him? That's some effed up logic there. Isn't she afraid of losing Fuji-san?" Kei wondered as she leaned into her chair, realizing suddenly that she knew next to nothing of Saitou Katsumi and was actually curious.

"The thing is, and I'm stating this with no sense of malice, Katsumi is an absolute dumb-ass when it comes to her own personal life. Every movement she makes is primitive and unconscious at that," Ren sighed deeply. "And somehow..."

"That's rather harsh, Yamashita-san." Kei's eyebrows rose in a sudden burst of appreciation for her upperclassmen. "I wouldn't think any less of the Black Rose of Seigaku."

"Herr alle mächtig! War das mein Spitzname?"

'Damn!' thought Kei, a little impressed. 'German too?'

"Anyway, Kikumaru is Katsumi's special person. He was her first friend besides me and Tooru-this other guy you don't know-so she was especially careful not to break any boundaries. She's probably just confused right now. Kikumaru must be as well."

Kei stared at her black clad upperclassman, her deep silk kimono as well as her bright red combat boots, and then stared up the clock overhead.

"All this time, I knew she wasn't using him. And I knew that he felt something for her, but I didn't think that it was at all complicated. But they should really just get together already. I'm pretty sure that someone's going to get hurt if it continues on this way."

Ren scratched the scruff of hair behind her neck through her long, black cloak of hair and gazed into the back of her eyelids. Something like annoyance passed through her entire being.

"I know that already," she stated quietly. "And I'm pretty sure that there are others with agendas similar to mine. Not yours though. Yours seems to be obstructing our collective plans."

"Sorry, but I made a promise, some time ago. Not just to myself but also to Eiji. I promised to never make that thing happen again."

Ren opened her eyes and leaned into the table, reguardless of the stain of whipped cream she gained on her elbow length sleeve.

"What thing?"

Kei and Ren glared into one anothers eyes once more, all sense of comraderie gone.

"The first time that Kikumaru Eiji ever fell in love."

~I~R~I~S~


	22. Revelations

Iris

Salty: So, we've come a long way you guyses. But, this is the last chapter. Honestly, I've been busy with school and stuff and this may be my last chance to update. Also, this may be my last fanfic. On this site, about anime anyway. I had more plans to continue on, more stories for Katsumi and Eiji, but none of them seemed right. So, without further adeu, the final chapter of Iris. Also, bonus points for people who recognize the park.

A link to Katsumi/Yui- .com/image/anime%?o=22

Chapter 22. Revelations

**Katsumi-Pov.**

The phone rang while I chopped some onions to add to Kazuma's soup.

"Kazuma!" I called. "GET THE DAMNED PHONE!" There was no reply but the beeps of whatever video game he was playing for his video game club. Typical Kazuma.

I rolled my eyes, slid down the counted and was about to pick up the phone when I noticed the bits of vegetable and stew and my hands. I wrapped my hands in a nearby towel and held up the phone to my ear.

"Hello, this is the Saitou Residence," I said, glaring into the livingroom at my little brother, who didn't so much as glance at me.

_"Oh! Katsumi, I'm so glad to hear your voice! It's like the angels first speaking to the first man!"_

"Dad?"

~I~R~I~S~

_**Several years earlier, Tomoeda Park**_

**Suzuyama Kei-POV**

_Eiji and I had been friends since infancy. Like, literally, our moms had us put us in pageants together as three month olds, which was how we met. Which is kind of creepy. We spent a lot of time at this one playground near my house, a really, really great square of a playground in the middle of lots of trees. There was a large crowned penguin in it, and a slide, a sea-saw and a swing set. Also, those things that are shaped like large animals that had some unfortunate accident, resulting in them being forever melted upon a large spring, which swayed very dangerously._

_We went there everyday after school. Eiji liked the swings but I liked to climb on top of the penguin- a freaking huge slide, by the way-beneath its head and watch bystanders, like it was my own lighthouse looking over the world. Off the point but still badass._

_One day, I saw a girl come through. A cute one with pig tails in her wavy brown hair, about our age. She looked a lot like Saitou Katsumi._

_"Hi," the girl smiled, standing directly in front of the non-swinging Eiji. He looked up at her, slowly, like it was a movie._

_"Hi." His eyes sparkled. I may have been really far away but damn me if his eyes didn't twinkle and he didn't immediately fall in love with the girl clutching a raccoon to her chest._

~I~R~I~S~

**Eiji-pov**

It was mid-afternoon as I sat in my computer chair, spinning about lazilly. My older sister-the brunette one, Yuki-leaned in my doorway with nothing else to do. She just stared at me, bored, unblinking.

"God, you've gotten lazy. Ya know? I used to watch you..." I stopped paying attention at that point. Not because I was uninterested and my sister was uninteresting.

Just because I didn't feel like her complaining. She was doing that a lot recently, ever since she and her best friend got into an arguement over a hot boy that didn't pay the slightest attention in either of them. I knew him, and he was a pretty good guy.

"I think you're in love. And further more," That caught my attention. I stared up in her direction, shocked, horrified, and some other third thing.

"What? In love? Why?" She smiled the evil smile that only sisters were capable of.

"Ohohoho! I've hit a mark now, haven't I?" Her brown eyes reflected years of payback, undeserved. "You are in love, Kikumaru Eiji!"

"Why would you say that, NYA?" My voice felt higher than usual. It hurt.

"Because you're lazy, you stare at things randomly, and you can't stop talking about that Saitou girl who stayed over at our house that one time!" There was no use in hiding it. She knew. She knew everything. Yuki was just the only one mean enough to say it directly.

And, it dawned on me then, that she was right. I _was _in love. With Tsumi-chan. I was in love with Tsumi-chan. Inwardly admitting it felt similar to her discovering it.

"I guess."

Yuki made a made dash across my room, landing in a steriotypical girly position on my bed, face towards me. Her hands held up her head, her legs up and twisted, she lay upon her stomach.

"Ooh! Eiji loves Saitou! Does she know how you feel? Does she luuuuurve you back? Come on, you can't shut up about your new Gundam toys but you don't say a word about this? COME OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-"

And again, I stopped paying attention and thought about how I was in love with Katsumi. How _new _that felt. How unsure I was that it was even love that I felt, and yet it was.

Then the phone rang, someone answered soon, and my other sister, a red head who looked very similar to me, ran into the room to hand me the phone.

"It's for you, Eiji-chan!" she chirped, before running out of the room. Yuki became quiet once I pressed the phone to my ear and it was apparent that I wasn't listening.

"Hell-o, Nya!" There was a brief silence on the other end, then a cough. I recognized the cough-Raki-chan! "Raki-chaaaaaan? Why are you being so meeaaaaaaan? Talk to me gal-frieend!"

_"Saitou-san's moving," _she said. _"To America. She's moving in a week. Saitou-san just told me. She-she wanted me to tell you. Also, she's not going to be in school. Just...Just thought that you should know." _

Silence. I couldn't think. I felt very blank, and I think Yuki heard as well, because she bit her lip the way she did when she felt very awkward or sad.

Then, when I didn't respond for at least a minute, Raki-chan hung up.

Then Yuki said, "I'm sorry, Eiji." And she walked out. I wished that she didn't, but she did. And I already missed her.

~I~R~I~S~

_**?**_

_The girl with the raccoon-whose name was George Harrison-was named Yui-chan. I never learned her last name, because Eiji and I never spent much time with her apart from at the playground. She and I got along alright, but it was Eiji who she was really close to. Her eyes would kind of...light up, in a way, whenever she would see him, and so would his. I think she loved him, for a ten year old, and he just goddamn adored her._

_She was very cute and very outspoken and just perfect for him, but also had a temper. She sucked at tennis, to be quite honest. But none of this matted to Eiji. He loved her._

_Then, about a two years later, I was still in my lighthouse-watchtower and Eiji sat on his swing, waiting for his companion to fill the slight emptiness by sitting on the swing next to him. Summer morning burned to summer afternoon then faded to summer evening until our parents had to come and get us. We were never to see Yui-chan again. Mostly because I would soon move to Seishun and Eiji would soon follow. But Eiji was devestated._

_He wouldn't eat for a very brief time. For a while, he didn't even speak. I think that's about when he became so cheerful. It was kind of a way to distance himself from it all. To create the Eiji persona that would let him live life to the fullest. I hope that I was informative._

Yamashita Ren laid back in her bed after shutting off the tap player, not the one in the apartment that she set up with Katsumi but Das Epos Lair von Ren, or the Ren Cave, set up in a secret place that no one else the she personally knew was awair of. The one where she could explore her obsession with all things girl-ie and non-goth things without being judged.

She looked into the eyes of a unicorn with similar hazel eyes to Suzuyama Kei, and sighed. Katsumi was moving soon. Eiji was going to be devestated, if he'd gone through something similar once. And what was she going to do about Kazuma's unrequited feelings? She'd pretended to be indifferent and unknowing for some time but...

Yamashita Kei puffed out her chest (embroidered with rhinestones saying 'I Love Ponies!') and banished the last thought about the youngest mortal from her mind. It was Katsumi and Eiji's love life that demanded her full attention.

A probably scenario began to form in her mind, the less likely ones being banished as the entire thing mapped itself out. But she had to start it up, and it began with one boy. She knew this well as she went to speed dial, pressed four for Fuji Syusuke and pressed the phone to her ear.

_"Hello? Fuji Syusuke here. Who would this happen to be?"_ he said after four rings.

"It's Ren," she said. "Things are in motion with Katsumi and Eiji. Everything begins now." Fuji didn't bother asking stupid questions.

He merely said, "What do I need to do?"

~I~R~I~S~

**Eiji-Pov**

The phone remained on my desk, above my computer, when it rang again. I hoped that it was Katsumi. I hoped that it wasn't Katsumi. (Spoiler Alert! It wasn't Katsumi.)

"Hello?" My voice seemed like a dry baritone in my own ears. "This is Kikumaru Eiji," I added for fear of seeming rude.

_"Eiji, this is Fuji. You need to-"_

"Heeeeey, Fujiko-chan. Did you hear about Tsumi-chan?"

_"Yeah, I did. But that's not exactly what I'm calling about."_

"Really? I'd like to talk about it a bit." I did, but I didn't. It was all I could really think of at the time.

_"Well, okay, I suppose. But I really, really have to speak with you about something else."_

"Go ahead." I didn't want to hear about Katsumi anymore.

_"I broke up with Katsumi." _HE WAS DATING KATSUMI?J(!U#&UI!(I!(I*&^$&#*()? (I wasn't angry or hurt, well not a lot, anyway, just surprised.) _"And she's moving. You have to make your move NOW. Capital N now. Just hang up with me now, and confess your feelings NOW."_

"What? Why-but I don't-" How did he know? Call her and tell her? I wasn't so sure...

_"Look, just call her. Tell her what you've meant to tell her for months now, satisfy the world from the awkwardness and just tell her."_

"What? On the phone? Now, I don't..."

_"You're right. Too impersonal. Go there yourself, on the tram. Go. NOW!"_

I was too frightened to disagree, so I hung up the phone, put on a jacket and got on the tram to Katsumi's apartment.

~I~R~I~S~

**Katsumi-Pov**

Dusk descended upon the apartment complex as Kazuma and I sat outside, watching the WacDonalds across the street. It looked rather beautiful in the seeting sun, almost like twin arches. A lot had happened. My parents had called, informing Kazuma and I that we were to move to America within a goddammed _week, _of all things. Fuji-kun had broken up with me, which was understandable since we didn't have great chemistry, were just friends who were in love with other people and also because I was moving continents.

Kazuma was taking it much worse than me. He threw down his game console, stomped outside and damn near cried, though he thoroughly refused this. His eyes, though, his caramel eyes were misty as he stared at the upside-down twin arches overhead the WacDonalds.

"I'm in love," he suddenly burst out, staring at the horizon, neither fading nor setting. "With Ren-chan. And I've told her but she hasn't said anything. She said that she needed time to think, and now we're moving and there isn't Any. MORE. TIME." A tear leaves his face and does so on mine.

Then my chest fills with this hopeless, suffocated feeling. The feeling you might get when you had time to save yourself from falling or drowning, but didn't take it. And the tears continue for both of us.

Suddenly, and impulsively, I got up and Kazuma got up and we hugged for the first time since he had arrived at my apartment. At least we could drown together. Then I thought of Eiji and just buried my head into Kazuma's baby blue sweater. I hoped that he didn't know that it was to hide the tears.

I was just so damn...embarrassed to be crying. Why was Eiji bringing that up? Was it because I loved him like my own son?

"Hey." Kazuma nudged me off and twirled my shoulders in the direction of the WacDonalds, then twisting my head down to the lawn. "Look."

Down in the grass lawn was a panting Eiji.

"I LOVE YOU, TSUMI-CHAN!" he screeched out hoarsely. That is, before passing out on the grass.

I went down stairs to check on him, while Kazuma called the medic.

As I stared down at his cute, cat-like (albeit sweaty face) I wondered why the hell he'd come to my house on a roasting day, why he wore a large sweater, and why he said he loved me.

"It doesn't matter," I suddenly said aloud, kneeling down next his passed out body and suddenly feeling so weak that I laid down beside him. "God damn it, I think I love you too, Eiji-kun."

~E~N~D~

I feel like a troll. For some reason...So, end. And sidenote, each chapter ends with someone calling someone on the phone. Goodbye forever!


End file.
